THE
SOUTH SINCE THE WAIR:
AS SHOWN BY
FOURTEEN WEEKS OF TRAVEL
AND OBSERVATION
IN
GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS.
BY
ANDREWS.
BO S TON:
TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
1866.
SIDNEY 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
SIDNEY ANDREWS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & C6.,
CAMBRIDGE.
.1 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
I SPENT the months of September, October, and
November, 1865, in the States of North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia, as the Correspondent
of the Boston Advertiser and the Chicago Tribune,
,                        o   to.
.;4
IMARcii, 1866.
11
/1
t
-1       t:    1,,
I     I.
, f  
CONTENTS.
I.
CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE CITY IN WHICH RE- Page
BELLION BEGAN..........  1
II.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN THE INTERIOR OF SOUTH CARO -.
LINA...........
III.
THE  SITUATION WITH RESPECT TO THE NEGRO...  21
IV.
SCENES IN THE TRACK OF SHERMAN'S ARMY...  28
V.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONVENTION.38
VI.
THE LEyJaERS OF THE CONVENTION AND THE REPEAL OF
f~  SECESSION ORDINANCE......                  47
./                       v
VII.
ACTION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION.  56
VIII.
THE BASIS OF REPRESENTATION.....  68 
Vi                    CONTENTS.
Ix.
THE GREAT CONTEST BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER
SECTIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
X.
MINOR WORK OF THE STATE CONVENTION...
XI.
SUMMARY OF FOUR WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS.
XII.
THE GREAT MILITARY PRISON OF NORTH CAROLINA..
.~~~~~~~~ii
XIII.
AFFAIRS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA...
XIV.
THEiiORTH CAROLINA FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION..
XV.
THE ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL OF THE NORTH CARO   LINA STATE CONVENTION.......
XVI.
DEBATE AND ACTION IN RESPECT TO THE ORDINANCE OF
SECESSION........
XVII.
ACTION IN REGARD TO SLAVERY AND THE FREEDMEN.
XVIII.
TIHE WAR-DEBT QUESTION AND THE MINOR WORK OF THE
CONVENTION.........
XIX.
AFFAIRS IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA
75
83
92
1 I.;2
108
119
132
140
154
163
173 
CONTENTS.
xX.
SUMMARY OF THREE WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS IN NORTH
CAROLINA.......
XXI.
TIlE GREAT MILITARY PRISON OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
XXII.
LIFE AND LABOR IN THE SOUTH CAROLINA LOW-COUNTRY
XXIII.
LIFE AND LABOR IN THE SOUTH CAROLINA UP-COUNTRY 
XXIV.
SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTH-CAROLINIANS.
XXV.
FIRST GLIMPSES OF GEORGIA.......
XXVI. 
ORGANIZATION AND PERSONN.EL OF THE GEORGIA STATE
CONVENTION........
XXVII.
xxvii.
SECESSION AND SLAVERY......
xxviii.
XXVIII.
ASKING PARDON FOR JEFF DAVIS.....
XXIX.
xxix.
AMENDING THE STATE CONSTITUTION.....
XXX.
THE MINOR WORK OF THE CONVENTION...
XRXI.
IIoW REPUDIATION WIAS ACCOMPLISHED
vii
180
191
201
214
222
230
237
243
247
253
256
260 
viii                  CONTENTS.
XXXII.
REVIEW OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE CONVENTION  281
XXIII.
A VISIT TO THE HOME OF JUDGE LYNCH.... 288
XXXIV.
THE GREAT MILITARY PRISON OF GEORGIA... 3()1
XXXV.
MATTERS IN SOUTHWESTERN GEORGIA.......   318
XXXVI.
THE STATE ELECTIONS.......... 325
XXXVII.
MATTERS IN WESTERN GEORGIA.......       331
XXXVIII.
xxxvii.
MATTERS IN NORTHWESTERN GEORGIA....... 338
XXXIX.
MATTERS IN CENTRAL GEORGIA..... 344
XL.
MAITTERS IN EASTERN GEORGIA.....353
XLI.
MATTERS IN SOUTHEASTERN GEORGIA..... 365
XLII.
SUMMARY OF FIVE WVEEKS' OBSERVATIONS IN GEORGIA. 374
XLIII.
SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON THE SITUATION IN GEOR   GIA AND THE CAROLINAS...........383 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
I.
CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE CITY IN WHICH
REBELLION BEGAN.
CHARLESTON, September 4, 1865.
CITY of ruins, of desolation, of vacant houses, of wid      owed women, of rotting wharves, of deserted warehouses, of weed-wild gardens, of miles of grass-grown streets,
of acres of pitiful and voiceful barrenness,- that is Charleston, wherein Rebellion loftily reared its head five years ago,
on whose beautiful promenade the fairest of cultured women
gathered with passionate hearts to applaud the assault of ten
thousand upon the little garrison of Fort Sumter!
"The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding small." Be sure Charleston knows what these words
mean. Be sure the pride of the eyes of these men and
women has been laid low. Be sure they have eaten wormwood, and their souls have worn sackcloth.  "God's ways
seem dark, but soon or late they touch the shining hills of
day." Henceforth let us rest content in this faith; for here
is enough of woe and want and ruin and ravage to satisfy
the most insatiate heart,- enough of sore humiliation and
bitter overthrow to appease the desire of the most vengeful
spirit.
Who kindled the greedy fire of December, 1861, whereby
a third of the city was destroyed? No one yet knows. "It
was de good Jesus hisself," said an old negro to me when I
asked him the question, -" it was de Almighty Hand workin'
1                                  A 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
fru de man's hand." Certain it is that the people were never
able to discover the agency of the fire; though, so far as I
can learn, no one doubts that it was the work of an incendiary,-  "some man," say the ex-Rebels, "who wanted to do
you Federals a good turn."
Recall last winter's daily bulletin about the bombardment, - so many shells and no damage done, - so many
shells and no damage done, - day after day the same old
story, till one almost believed it true. Yet ex-Rebel officers
will tell you now that our aim was so perfect that we killed
their sentinels with our Parrott guns; and go where you
will, up and down the streets in almost any portion of the
city, and you find the dumb walls eloquent with praises of
our skill.
We never again can have the Charleston of the decade
previous to the war. The beauty and pride of the city are
as dead as the glories of Athens. Five millions of dollars
could not restore the ruin of these four past years; and that
sum is so far beyond the command of the city as to seem
the boundless measure of immeasurable wealth. Yet, after
all, Charleston was Charleston because of the hearts of its
people. St. Michael's Church, they held, was the centre of
the universe; and the aristocracy of the city were the very
elect of God's children on earth. One marks now how few
young men there are, how generally the young women are
dressed in black. The flower of their proud aristocracy is
buried on scores of battle-fields. If it were possible to restore the broad acres of crumbling ruins to their foretime
style and uses, there would even then be but the dead body
of Charleston.
The Charleston of 1875 will doubtless be proud in wealth
and intellect and rich in grace and culture.  Let favoring
years bring forward such fruitage! Yet the place has not in
itself recuperative power for such a result. The material on
which to build that fair structure does not here exist, and,
2 
CHARLESTON.
as I am told by dozens, cannot be found in the State.  If
Northern capital and Northern energy do not come here,
the ruin, they say, must remain a ruin; and if this time five
years finds here a handsome and thriving city, it will be the
creation of New England,- not necessarily the pattern of
New England, for the influences from thence will be moulded
by and interfused with those now existing here; but yet, in
the essential fact, the creation of New England.
It was noted on the steamship by which I came from New
York that, leaving out the foreign element, our passengers
were from Charleston and from Massachusetts. We had
nearly as many Boston men as Charleston men. One of
the Charleston merchants said to me that when he went
North the passengers were also almost equally divided
between Massachusetts and South Carolina; and he added,
that, in Eastern Massachusetts, where he spent some days,
he found many men who were coming to Charleston.
Of Massachusetts men, some are already in business here,
and others came on to "see the lay of the land," as one of
them said. "That's all right," observed an ex-Rebel captain
in one of our after-dinner chats,- "that's all right; let's
have Massachusetts and South Carolina brought together,
for they are the only two States that amount to anything."
"I hate all you Yankees most heartily in a general sort
of way," remarked another of these Southerners; "but I
find you clever enough personally, and I expect it'11 be a
good thing for us to have you come down here with your
money, though it'll go against the grain with us pretty
badly."
There are many Northern men here already, though one
cannot say that there is much Northern society, for the
men are either without families or have left them at home.
Walking out yesterday with a former Charlestonian,- a
man who left here in the first year of the war and returned
soon after our occupation of the city, -he pointed out to
a - 
THE SOIJTH SINCE THE WAR.
me the various "Northern houses"; and I shall not exag gerate if I say that this classification appeared to include
at least half the stores on each of the principal streets.
"The presence of these men," said he, "was at first very
distasteful to our people, and they are not liked any too
well now; but we know they are doing a good work for
the city."
I fell into some talk with him concerning the political
situation, and found him of bitter spirit toward what he was
pleased to denominate "the infernal radicals." When I asked
him what should be done, he answered: "You Northern people are making a great mistake in your treatment of the
South. We are thoroughly whipped; we give up slavery
forever; and now we want you to quit reproaching us. Let
us back into the Union, and then come down here and help
us build up the country.".
Every little variation from the old order of things excites
the comment "Yankee notion," in which there is sometimes
good-natured querulousness and sometimes a sharp spice of
contempt.   Stopping a moment this afternoon in a store
where were three or four intelligent men, one of them asked
me the use of the "thing" I had in my hand.  It was one
of the handle-and-straps so common in the North for carrying shawls, cloaks, overcoats, &c. Seeing that none of them
had any idea what it was, I explained its use.  "Well, now,
what a Yankee notion!"  "Yes," answered another, " but
how handy- it is."
To bring here the conveniences and comforts of our
Northern civilization, no less than the Northern idea of
right and wrong, justice and injustice, humanity and inhumanity, is the work ready for the hand of every New England man and woman who stands waiting. There is much
prejudice to overcome, and some of it is bitter and aggravating; but the measure of success won by Northern
men already in the field is an earnest of the reward for
4 
CHARLESTON.
others. Self-interest is a masterful agent in modern civilization.
Business is reviving slowly, though perhaps the more
surely. The resident merchants are mostly at the bottom
of the ladder of prosperity. They have idled away the summer in vain regrets for vanished hopes, and most of them
are only just now beginning to wake to the new life. Some
have already been North for goods, but more are preparing
to go; not heeding that, while they vacillate with laggard
time, Northern men are springing in with hands swift to catch
opportunity. It pains me to see the apathy and indifference
that so generally prevails; but the worst feature of the situation is, that so many young men are not only idle, but give
no promise of being otherwise in the immediate future.
MIany of the stores were more or less injured by the
shelling. A few of these have been already repaired, and
are now occupied,-  very likely by Northern men.    A
couple of dozen, great and small, are now in process of repair; and scores stand with closed shutters or gaping doors
and windows. The doubt as to the title of property, and
the wise caution of the President in granting pardons, unquestionably has something to do with the stagnation so painfully apparent; but very much of it is due to the hesitating
shiftlessness of even the Southern merchant, who forever
lets I dare not wait upon I_would. Rents of eligible storerooms are at least from one fourth to one third higher
than before the war, and resident business men say only
Northern men who intend staying but a short time can
afford to pay present prices.   I'm sure I can't see how
any one can afford to pay them, but I know the demand
is greater than the supply.
I queried of the returning merchants on the steamship
how they were received in the North. An Augusta man
complained that he could get no credit, and that there was
a disposition to be grinding and exacting. One Charleston
5 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
man said he asked for sixty days, and got it without a word
of objection.   Another told me  that he asked  for four
months, was given three, and treated like a gentleman
everywhere.   Another showed me the receipt for a debt
of about fifteen hundred dollars contracted before the war,
which he had paid in full; and when he asked for four
months on a bill of eight thousand dollars, it was readily
given. Still another settled his old indebtedness with one
third cash and eight and twelve months notes for the balance, while he got ninety days on three fourths of his new
bill. One man said he had many friends in the North, and
they all knew him for a thorough Rebel; he expected some
taunts, but tried to carry himself like a gentleman, and was
courteously received, "even in Boston."
I judge that such of the merchants as first went North
and settled with their creditors made more favorable terms
than those who went later. If it be said that those were
men who had loved the Union, while these are men who
had not; that those were men of keen sense of commercial
honor and integrity, while these are men who cared less
for an adjustment; that those are men who deserved favors,
while these are men who have forfeited all claim to special
consideration, -if this be said, the pith of the matter will
probably be hit so far as regards most of those who now
complain of their reception.
Yet there are men who deserved better than they have
received. These are they who, whatever their views on the
questions at issue in the war, meant to pay all their debts.
MIost of them are men who loved the Union and hated
secession. That there were such men in all parts of the
State is beyond question. When the negroes say any one
was a Union man during the war, the fact is established;
from their judgment and testimony there is no appeal.
These men, having no faith in the Confederacy, put everything they could into cotton or rosin or turpentine, - hop
6 
CHARLESTON.
ing to save something from the general wreck they saw
impending,- only to find in the end that they are scarcely
richer than those who invested everything in Confederate
bonds.
It would seem that it is not clearly understood how
thoroughly Sherman's army destroyed everything in its
line of march,- destroyed it without questioning who suffered by the action. That this wholesale destruction was
often without orders, and often against most positive orders,
does not change the fact of destruction. The Rebel leaders were, too, in their way, even more wanton, and just as
thorough as our army in destroying property.   They did
not burn houses and barns and fences as we did; but, during the last three months of the war, they burned immense
quantities of cotton and rosin.
The action of the two armies put it out of the power of
men to pay their debts.  The values and the bases of value
were nearly all destroyed. Money lost about everything
it had saved. Thousands of men who were honest in purpose have lost everything but honor. The cotton with
which they meant to pay their debts has been burned, and
they are without other means. What is the part of wisdom in respect to such men?  It certainly cannot be to
strip them of the last remnant. Many of them will pay in
whole or in part, if proper consideration be shown them.
It is no question of favor to any one as a favor, but a pure
question of business, - how shall the commercial relations
of the two sections be re-established? In determining it,
the actual and exceptional condition of the State with
respect to property should be constantly borne in mind.
Yet when all this is said in favor of one class of merchants, it must, in good conscience, be added, that by far a
larger class is showing itself unworthy of anything but
stringent measures. " How do you find the feeling?" said
I to a gentleman of national reputation, who is now here
7 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
settling the affairs of a very large New York house.
"Well, there are a good many merchants who don't mean
to pay anything more than they are obliged to," said he
in reply. I asked of one of the leading merchants this
morning, "Are your people generally disposed to settle
their accounts? " His answer was, " Those who expect to
continue business must of course do so." " How about the
others?" I queried.  "I'm afraid there is n't so much commercial honor as there should be," he replied. I am told
of one firm which represented itself entirely ruined, when
subsequent investigation showed that it had five thousand
pounds sterling to its credit in Liverpool; and of another
which offered only thirty cents on the dollar, when its property in New York alone will cover over seventy cents on
the dollar of its entire indebtedness.
That Rebellion sapped the foundations of commercial integrity in the State is beyond question. That much of the
Northern indebtedness will never be paid is also beyond
question.   What is desirable is, that creditors should become cognizant of all the facts in the case before fixing
terms.   For the rascal there is but one set of terms; for
the honest man there should be every possible consideration.
The city is under thorough military rule; but the iron
hand rests very lightly. Soldiers do police duty, and there
is some nine-o'clock regulation; but, so far as I can learn,
anybody goes anywhere at all hours of the night without
molestation.  "There never was such good order here before," said an old colored man to me. The main street is
swept twice a week, and all garbage is removed at sunrise.
"If the Yankees was to stay here always and keep the city
so clean, I don't reckon we'd have'yellow jack' here any
more," was a remark I overheard on the street.  "Now is
de fust time sence I can'mem'er when brack men was safe
in de street af'er nightfall," stated the negro tailor in whose
shop I sat an hour yesterday. 
8 
CHARLESTON.
On the surface, Charleston is quiet and well behaved;
and I do not doubt that the more intelligent citizens are
wholly sincere in their expressions of a desire for peace
and reunion. The city has been humbled as no other city
has been; and I can't see how any man, after spending a
few days here, can desire that it shall be further humiliated
merely for revenge. Whether it has been humiliated enough
for health is another thing. Said one of the Charlestonians on the boat, "You won't see the real sentiment of our
people, for we are under military rule; we are whipped,
and we are going to make the best of things; but we hate
Massachusetts as much as we ever did."  This idea of making the best of things is one I have heard from scores of
persons. I find very few who hesitate to frankly own that
the South has been beaten.  "We made the best fight we
could, but you were too strong for us, and now we are only
anxious to get back into the old Union and live as happily
as we can," said a large cotton factor. I find very few who
make any special profession of Unionism; but they are almost
unanimous in declaring that they have no desire but to live
as good and quiet citizens under the laws.
For the first two months of our occupancy of the city
scarcely a white woman but those of the poorer classes was
seen on the street, and very few were even seen at the
windows and doors of the residences. That order of things
is now, happily, changed. There does n't yet appear to be
as much freedom of appearance as would be natural; but
very many of what are called the "first ladies" are to be
seen shopping in the morning and promenading in the evening.  They, much more than the men, have contemptuous
motions for the negro soldiers; and scorn for Northern men
is frequently apparent in the swing of their skirts when passing on the sidewalk.
One does n't observe so much pleasantness and cheerfulness as would be agreeable; but the general demeanor is
1 *
9 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
quite consonant with the general mourning costume. A
stroller at sunset sees not a few pale and pensive-faced
young women of exquisite beauty; and a rambler during
the evening not unfrequently hears a strain of touching
melody from the darkened parlor of some roomy old mansion, with now and then one of the ringing, passionate airs
with which the Southern heart has been fired during the war.
Mothers yet teach their children hate of the North, I judge;
for when I asked a bright-eyed girl of half a dozen years,
with whom I walked on a back street for a block or two,
whose girl she was, she promptly answered, "A Rebel mother's girl." Patience, good people who love liberty, patience;
this petty woman's spite will bite itself to death in time.
Down in the churchyard of St. Philip's, one of the richest
and most aristocratic of churches in this proud city, is a grave
which  every stranger is curious to see.  There are only the
four plain panelled brick walls about three feet high, and on
them a mottled white marble slab, some nine feet by four in
size. At the head of the grave is a single sickly ten-foothigh magnolia tree. At each corner of the foot is a sprawling and tangled damask rose-bush, and about midway on the
right there is also a small white rose-bush. All around the
little plat is a border of myrtle, sweet in its rich greenness,
but untrimmed and broken and goat-eaten. It is the grave
of the father of the Rebellion, and on the marble slab there
i     s cu    t         the one word,
"CALHOUN."
This churchyard symbolizes the city of Charleston. Children and goats crawl through a convenient hole in the front 
wall, and play at will among the sunken graves and broken
tombstones. There is everywhere a wealth of offal and garbage and beef-bones. A mangy cur was slinking among the
stones, and I found a hole three feet deep which he had dug
at the foot of one of the graves. Children were quarrelling
10 
f HARLESTON.
the more recent mounds. The whole
for flowers over one Ofveeds and brush, and the place is desoyard is grown up to,it well can be; more desolate because
late and dreary as broken away the corners of the great
cruel hands havealhoun, - for mementos, I suppose. Time
marble slab of  a Carolina guarded this grave as a holy spot.
was when South ruin with her chief city. When Northern
Now it lies iC-ild and revivify that city, let us pray it may
life shall rebte and simple beauty around this grave; for
also set chaneed to wish the brave but bad spirit of Calhoun
there is no'ishment than it must have in seeing the woe and
greater pur mourning which the war has brought the region
waste andso well.
he loved,(
#            11~~~~~~J..
ERS AND CUSTOMS IN THE INTERIOR OF SOUTH
MANE               CAROLINA.
ORANGEBURG C. H., September 7, 1865.
AROM Charleston to Orangeburg Court HIouse is seventy
I    seven miles.  Route, South Carolina Railroad.  Time,
ven and a half hours.  Fare, five dollars.  There is one
Strain per day each way. Our train consisted of five freight cars, the baggage-car, a box freight-car with seats for ne groes, and one passenger-coach. The down train, which we
met at Branchville,   where Sherman's army was to find its
doom,- consisted of seven freight-cars, four of which were
filled with troops on the way to Charleston and home, the
baggage-car, and two passenger-coaches. Our one car was
uncomfortably full when we started; but only eleven of the
passengers came through.
"What sort of accommodations can I get at Orangebl)urg?"
I asked of a friend in Charleston.
I
ii
I I. 
THE SOUTH SINCE THtE WAR.
"You're not going to stop up there?  0 you can't do it!"
"Well, I shall try it, at all events."
"Don't do it; Orangeburg is just as grood as any of these
towns; but I advise you to shun all of'ero.  The accommodations are awful: push right on to Columb'ia."
I was n't to be put down that way, for I had consulted a
gazetteer, and learned that "Orangeburg is a pleasant and
thriving town on the northeast bank of the north fork of the
Edisto River.  It is in the midst of a farming district, and
is the centre of a large cotton trade. Populatio)n two thousand seven hundred." That was before the war, and I knew
the place had been partly burned; but I felt con:ident that
my friend exaggerated.
We left the city at seven and a half o'clock in the morning. Twenty miles out, the conductor came thro ugh the
car, and collected our fares; for no tickets are sold at
Charleston.   In  front of me  sat a good-looking young
woman, of about twenty-two, I judged. Hearing he r very
plainly say that she was going to Orangeburg, I deter mined
to ask her about the town and its hotel accommodations.
"Yes, I live there," she said.
"Is there a hotel in the town, or any place at whic"h a
person can stop?"
"0 yes, there's a hotel," she said; and after a pause-,
she added, " but it's hardly such a place as a gentleman
would choose, I think."
She spoke pleasantly enough, and, having answered my
question, might have dropped the conversation; instead of
which, she went on to say that persons who had occasion to
stop in town for some days frequently took a room at a private house, and were much better suited than at the hotel.
I did the only thing I well could do,- the thing that it
was perfectly natural I should do.  I asked her if she could
mention one or two private houses at which I might ask for
accommodations, if the hotel proved unendurable.
12 
A LITTLE REBEL WOMAN.
I fully expected that she would say her mother sometimes
accommodated gentlemen; and I may as well own that I
had determined what reply I should make to that announcement.
Instead, however, she turned in her seat so as to face me,
and said, with considerable vim, "Are you a Yankee?"
The  question surprised me;  and I simply answered,
From tie North."
"By what right do you presume -to speak to me, sir?"
she asked, in a clear and snapping tone, that caught the ears
and eyes of most of the passengers.
The strangeness of the question, no less than the remarkable change in her manner, coupled with the fact that I
knew myself to be under the observation of thirty or more
persons of Southern birth and feeling, embarrassed me to
such degree that I could only stammer, " By the right which
I supposed a gentleman always had to ask a lady a civil
question."
"Well, sir, I don't choose to talk with you."
And she settled herself sharply into her seat, jerked her
little body into a very upright position, and squared her
shoulders in a very positive manner,- while I sat flushed
and confused.
What should I do about it? That was a question I asked
myself twenty times per hour for the next thirty miles. I
was seriously inclined to apologize, though I hardly knew
for what; but did n't, for I feared the little Rebel might
snub me again, if I gave her an opportunity. Ill front of
her sat a young man who had been a captain in the Rebel
army. Him she soon engaged in conversation, and they
cheered the slow miles with most lively chat.   Surely,
thought I, this is beginning the three months' journey unfortunately. I could have borne her indignation quite easily;
but each individual in the car soon made me aware that my
Yankee baseness was well known and thoroughly appreciated.
13 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The forenoon wore away, and the crazy old engine
dragged itself along. Little Miss was vivacious and entertaining; the ex-officer was evidently in a cheerful frame of
mind; I sat alternating between repentance and indignation.
Finally the whistle sounded for Branchville.
Missy rose in her seat, shook out her skirts, drew on her
small thread glove, turned to me, - mind you, not to the
ex-officer, but to me, - and asked me if I would be good
enough to hand out her basket for her.
Here was another surprise. Queer creatures, these little
Rebels, said I to myself, as I followed her out,- carrying
the not heavy basket. She did n't stop when we reached
the platform of the station-house, but walked on towards its
upper end; and I followed, demurely, but wonderingly.
Fifteen or twenty yards away from the car, she suddenly
stopped, and turned quickly upon me with "Thank you; I
want to apologize to you; I was rude."
And here was the greatest surprise of all!  It caught me
in confusion; but I managed to say something to the effect
that perhaps I was too forward in asking the question I did.
"No, you were not. It was right that you should ask it,
and I was rude to answer you so uncivilly. But you caught
me at a disadvantage; I had n't spoken to a Federal since
Sumter was taken."
"Well, it did n't hurt you very much, did it?" said I.
Vhereat she laughed and I laughed, and then the engine
whistled.
"I'm going to stop here a day or two," she remarked;
and then, "You'll shake hands, won't you?" as I started
for the car. So we shook hands, and I left her standing on
the platform.
I had n't learned much about my chances for comfort in
Orangeburg, however.
We got here at three o'clock in the afternoon. I was
determined to stop, let the accommodations be what they
14 
ORANGEBURG.
would, and firmly said "No" when the stage agent at the
depot urged me to take a seat for Columbia.
There were five passengers with baggage.  Twenty-five
negroes crowded around us, and troubled the hot air with
harsh clamor.   "Give yer baggage here, sir."  "Luf dis
yer nig tote yer plun'er, Mass'r."  "Have yer balese toted
to de hotel, sah?"  "Tuk a hack up town, Mass'r?"
There was the man I wanted. He proved to be a strapping boy of thirteen or fourteen, who tossed my valise to the
top of his head and strode off with both hands swinging.
I found the "hack" to be a rickety old short-boxed spring
wagon, with two rough board seats, on the back one of which
was a worn-out cushion, over both being a canvas supported
on sticks nailed to each corner of the box. This establishment was drawn by a scrawny lame mule, and we were
seventeen minutes in accomplishing the half-mile, which the
boy called it, up to the hotel.
I was a little distrustful about the hotel; and learning from
the driver that boarders were sometimes taken at another
house, I stopped there and asked the white girl of fifteen,
whom I found on the piazza, if they could give me meals
and lodgings for about three days. She thought they could,
but would call her mother. So much of the house and
grounds as I could see presented an inviting appearance,
and I indulged in visions of a pleasant chamber and many
dreamy hours on the broad piazza. Presently "mother"
appeared. She was a plump woman of thirty-three, perhaps.
"Yes, sir, we have a couple of rooms, and we sometimes
take transient boarders," said she, answering the question I
put to the girl.
"I am stopping three or four days in town, and had much
rather be at a pleasant private house than at the hotel," I
said.
"Are you a Yankee or a Southerner?"
15 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
" 0, a Yankee, of course," I answered, smiling, though I
saw breakers ahead.
"No Yankee stops here!   Good day, sir!"  And she
turned and walked into the house.
The negro boy, who stood with my valise on his head,
volunteered the remark, " Haf to go to de hotel, sah"; and
I followed him back to the "hack."
At the "hotel" was a negro boy washing the steps from
the piazza into the basement. I told him what I wanted.
He would call the Missus.   She was somewhere in the
lower part of the house; and after her head came into sight
above the level of the floor on which I stood, she stopped
and washed her hands in the dirty water with which the
boy had just finished scrubbing the stairway, smoothing her
hair with them and wiping them on her apron.
I made known my desires, paid my driver his charge of
seventy-five cents, and was shown by Robert- him of the
wash-rag and scrubbing-brush- to room No. 8, the figure
being at least a foot in length and rudely done in white
chalk.
The room is about fourteen feet square, has one window
fronting the southeast, and is in the third story. Lath and
plaster there are not, on this floor at least. The partitions
are of rough unmatched pine, with strips of cloth over the
larger cracks, and a cheap wall paper on the boards all
round.  The ceiling is also of wood, and was once painted
white, but is now, like the wall paper, of a smoky yellow.
The paper is much broken by the shrinkage of the boards,
and large patches of it have been torn off in a dozen places.
The walls and ceiling are handsomely decorated with wasp's
mud nests and sooty-branched cobwebs. The bed is a dirty
cotton mattress in an old-fashioned high-post bedstead. There
are no sheets, and in fact nothing but a cotton-stuffed pillow
and a calico spread. This establishment is the abode of a
numerous and industrious colony of the Improved Order of
16 
MY HOTEL.
Red Men, to whom I nightly pay a heavy blood tribute.
Beside the bed there is for furnishing of the room one caneseat chair, a seven-by-ten looking-glass, and a three-footsquare and breast-high plain pine table, on which are a
cracked wash-bowl and a handleless and noseless waterpitcher, to which I prevailed on Robert to add a cracked
tumbler.  In the window are six sound panes of glass, four
cracked ones, and the remnants of five panes more. I suppose I should add also to the furniture several very social
and handsome mice, and a healthy and lively swarm of
uncommonly large mosquitoes.
The house has three stories and a basement dining-room.
The first and second floors have broad piazzas on each side
of the house. The first floor has four rooms, and the second
and third have five each. Robert says mine is the best on
the upper floor,- in which fact there is much consolation.
Glimpses into the second floor rooms have not bred in me
any desire to move down. In the so-called drawing-room
there are three old chairs, a round and rickety centre-table,
a sort of writing-desk, the wreck of a piano, and several
pieces of carpet. In the dining-room are two twelve-foot
plain pine tables, and twenty-three chairs of five different
patterns. The table-spread of this noon was the same we
had on the evening of my arrival, three days ago, and it was
horribly filthy then.   The  dining-room itself is airy and
clean. In the hall, and pasted to the wall, are a set of
"rules for the hotel," twice as long and formidable as any I
ever saw in any Northern house, whether first or fourth
class. The hotel register, a book fully equal to the necessities of any Boston house for six months, is, with a lead
pencil, handed round at the supper table each day for the
reception of the names of persons who have arrived since
morning.
The hotel grounds consist of a large yard, the gate of
which is always open, and within which all the stray stock
B
17 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
of the town has free ramble. At the bottom of the broad
steps on the upper side of the house is a large mud-puddle,
in which dogs and hogs alternately wallow, there being at
least five of the former and nine of the latter running about.
The dogs are gaunt and wolfish, - the hogs are slab-sided,
half-grown, and very long of nose. There is in the yard
about everything one can name, except grass and cleanli ness,- bits of wood and crockery, scraps of old iron, wisps
of straw and fodder, old rags, broken bottles, sticks, stones,
bones, hoofs, horns, nails, etc., etc., ad infnitum. The bar ber throws the sweepings of his shop on one side the house,
and the cook is equally free with her slops on the other side.
The "M issus" is the head of the house.  She is tall and
angular, with a complexion sallow to the last degree of sallowness, eyes ill which there is neither life nor hope, hair
which I am sure has not felt either comb or brush during
my stay. Her dress is a greasy calico, of the half-mourning
variety, to which she sometimes adds an apron which is n't
more repulsive only because it can't be. She is a type of
women, thank God, without counterpart in the North. She
goes about the house in a shuffling, shambling manner, with
the cry "Robert - Robert - Robert," or "'Manda -'Manda -'Manda," always on her tongue. There is no variety
of accent in this cry, but only one of length, as "RobertRo-be-rt - R-o-b-e-r-t." During meals she stands at the
head of the table, and serves out the allowance of tea or
coffee, and sugar and milk, with an unending string of such
talk as this: "Robert, tend the hominy"; "Gal, get the
gemman's cup and sasser";  "'Manda, mind the flies";
" Goodness gracious, nigger, why don't ye pass them biled
eg,gs "; "Now, Robert, do see them flies"; "'Manda, look
arter them squeet pertaterses "; "Now, ye good-for-nuthin'
nigger, can't ye brush away them flies?"  She complains,
in whining, listless fashion, to everybody, about the "niggers," telling how idle, shiftless, and ungrateful they are.
18 
HOTEL LIFE.
She has a husband, who takes special pains to inform everybody that he has n't anything to do with the hotel; and whose
sole occupations, so far as I can see, are smoking, complaining about "the niggers," and doctoring a poor old blind,
spavined horse.
The genius of the house is Robert, who stands on his head
as well as on his feet; who is trim, pert, wide-awake; who
picks out a Northern man with unerring instinct, and is
always ready and prompt to serve him; but who is forever
out of the way, or very busy when that cry of "Robert -
Ro-be-rt-  R-o-b-e-r-t" shuffles up through the house. What
trick of stealing sugar he has n't learned is n't worth learning.  "She talk about the niggers,-  bah!" he exclaims, as
he goes about his work.
When I was ready last evening to go to my room, I sent
Robert for a light, and told him to bring me a whole candle.
He came back directly and said, throwing his finger over his
shoulder, "She says can't have it."  I followed him into the
dining-room, where she sat whining at'Manda.
"Mladam, I should like a light."
She told Robert to bring her a candle, and was about to
cut off a piece two inches long.
"I should like a whole candle to-night, if you please,"
said I.
"Want a whole candle, sir?"
"Yes, ma'am, I'm going to write in my room awhile this
evening."
"Want a long candle?  What yer goin' to write?  Want
all this candle?"
"Can't I have the candle?"
"The whole candle?  Gemmen allers takes a short light
and goes to bed right soon."
"Shall I take that candle, or shall I send Robert out to
buy me one?"
"I reckon ye can have this.  I'11 send Robert up for it
arter a while."
19
0 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
I did n't stop to argue that point, but when I reached the
hall I said to Robert, "You'11 find the door locked if you
come up"; to which he responded, "I sha'n't come."
The table is wretched. The tea, eggs, and waffles are
the only articles even passably good. Bread and biscuit
are alike sour and leaden, and all the meats are swimming
in strong fat. The cook is a large and raw-boned negrowoman, who is aided by the "M issus," the boy Robert, and
the girl'MIanda.  I suppose Sarah cooks quite to the satisfaction of her mistress; but I doubt if it would be possible
for any Northern girl, even with twenty years of training,
to make of herself a cook so utterly bad as Sarah is. She
certainly exhibits most remarkable ability in spoiling everything in the line of eatables.
The general management of the house, I scarcely need
add, is hopelessly miserable. Everything is forever at sixesand-sevens, and the knowledge of where anything was yesterday gives not the least indication of its present whereabouts. The establishment, not less in its several parts
than in its aggregate whole, is an unclean thing. Shiftlessness has here his abode, and there is neither effort nor desire to dispossess him. And the traveller's bill is three
dollars and a half per day!
I have not drawn this picture except for a purpose. I
hear, already, in this Southern trip, a great deal about the
superior civilization of the South. This hotel is a part of its
outgrowth. Orangeburg was a place of twenty-five hundred
to three thousand inhabitants. It is the county seat. Here is
the State Orphan Asylum. The place is midway between
Charleston and the capital. Let any one consider what is the
character of the only public house in any Northern town of
the same size, and similarly situated, and then the quality of
thlis boasted Southern civilization will be apparent. Nor can
it be said that the war is responsible for the condition of tlings
here, for the house was full from the beginning, and has not
20 
THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS.
suffered any loss from either army. It could not receive a
week's support in any community of any State from Maine
to the Rocky Mountains. Yet here it lives on and on, year
after year, a witness for Southern civilization. Let us call
things by their right names, -then shall we say Soutlern
bbarbarism.
III.
THE SITUATION WITH RESPECT TO THE NEGRO.
ORAXNG.EBURG C. H., September 9, 1865.
ECALLING how persistently the whites of this State
have claimed, for twenty-five years, to be the negro's
special friends, and seeing, as the traveller does, how these
whites treat this poor black, one cannot help praying that
he may be saved from his friends in future.  Yet this cannot be. Talk never so plausibly and eloquently as any one
~iay of colonization or deportation, the inexorable fact remains, that the negro is in South Carolina, and must remain
here till God pleases to call him away. The problem involved in his future must be met on the soil of which he is
native; and any attempt to solve it elsewhere than in the
house of these his so-called special friends will be futile.
The work of the North, in respect to South Carolina, is
twofold: the white man must be taught what the negro's
rights are, and the negro must be taught to wait patiently
and wisely for the full recognition of those rights in his own
old home. i He waited so long in the house of bondage for
the birthright of freedom, that waiting is weary work for
him now; yet there is nothing else for him and us,- nothing but faith, and labor, and waiting, and, finally, rest in
victory.
The city negro and the country negro are as much unlike
21 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
as two races. So, too, the city white man and the country
white man differ much from each other. The latter, however, is just what he chooses to be, while the country negro
is just what slavery and his late owners have made him.
Tell me what you will derogatory of the country negro, and
very likely I shall assent to most of the language you use.
He is very often, and perhaps general]y, idle, vicious, improvident, negligent, and unfit to care well for his interests.
In himself, he is a hard, coarse, unlovely fact, and no amount
of idealizing can make him otherwise. Yet, for all that, he
is worth quite as much as the average country white.
The negro, one may say, is made by his master. I even
doubt if he is, in many cases, morally responsible for his
acts. With him there is no theft when he takes small property from the white; there is, of course, crime in the eye of
the law, but there is none in the design or consciousness of
the negro. Has not every day of his existence taught him
that robbery is no crime? So, too, if this uncouth freedman,
just from the plantation, falls into a passion and half kills
somebody, you will utterly fail in your effort to make him
understand that he has committed a grave crime. Has not
his whole life been witness of just such right and lawful outrage on humanity? This language may indicate a bad state
of affairs; but it points out certain conditions with respect to
the negro that must be taken into account by any one undertaking to deal with him as a freedman.
Everybody talks about the negro, at all hours of the day,
and under all circumstances. One might in truth sayusing the elegant language of opposition orators in Congress -that "the people have got nigger on the brain."
Let conversation begin where it will, it ends with Sambo.
I scarcely talk with any white man who fails to tell me
how anxious many of the negroes are to return to their old
homes. In coming up from Charleston I heard of not less
than eleven in this condition, and mention has been made
22 
THE FREEDMAN'S ENEMIES.
to me here in Orangeburg of at least a score. The first
curious circumstance is, that none of them are allowed to
return; and the second is, that I can't find any of those desirous of returning. I presume I have asked over a hundred negroes here and in Charleston if they wanted to go
back and live with their old masters as slaves, or if they
knew any negro who did desire to return to that condition,
and I have yet to find the first one who hesitates an instant
in answering "No."
I spoke of this difficulty I have in finding a single negro
who loved slavery better than he does freedom to an intelligent gentleman whom I met here last evening, - a member
of the Rhett family.  "I am surprised to hear that," said
he; "but I suppose it's because you are from the North, and
the negro don't dare to tell you his real feeling." I asked
if the blacks don't generally consider Northern men their
friends.  "0 yes," he answered, "and that's the very reason
why you can't find out what they think."
They deserve better treatment than they get at our hands
in Orangeburg, at least; and I am told that what I see
here is a forecast of what I shall see in all parts of the
State. Theoretically, and in the intent of Congress, the
Freedmen's Bureau stands as the next friend of the blacks;
practically, and in the custom of the country, it appears to
stand too often as their next enemy. That General Saxton
is their good friend does not need to be asserted. Very
likely the district commissioners under him are wise and
humane men, and unquestionably the general regulations
for the State are meant to secure justice to the freedmen.
The trouble arises from the fact that it is impossible for
the State Commissioner or his chief deputies to personally
know all, or even half, their various local agents. Take the
case right in hand. Head-quarters for this district are thirty
miles below here; and the ranking officer of the bureau has,
probably, agents in at least forty different towns, the major
A
23 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
ity of whom are doubtless lieutenants from the volunteer
forces of the army. They are detailed for this duty by the
military commander of the post or the district, - sometimes
after consultation with the district commissioner, but, quite
generally without.   As the post garrisons are constantly
changing, there may be a new agent of the bureau once a
month in each town of the district; and I need not add, that
the probabilities are that half the aggregate number on duty
at any given time are wholly unfit for the work intrusted
to them.
Again, take the case right in hand. The acting agent
here at present is a lieutenant from a New York regiment.
He is detailed by the colonel commanding, and has been on
duty several weeks. Yet he never has seen the district
commissioner of the bureau. His duties are to examine,
and approve or disapprove, all contracts between the plant   ers and the negroes, and to hear and determine all cases of
complaint or grievance arising between the negroes them   selves, or between the whites and the negroes. He treats
me courteously, but he has no sympathy with the poor and
lowly; and his ideas of justice are of the bar-room order,   might makes right. He doesn't really intend to outrage
\ the rights of the negroes, but he has very little idea that
they have any rights except such as the planters choose to
give them. His position, of course, is a difficult one; and
he brings to it a head more or less muddled with liquor, a
rough and coarse manner, a dictatorial and impatient tem   per, a most remarkable ability for cursing, and a hearty
contempt for "the whole d-n  pack o' niggers."  I speak
from the observation of a good deal of time spent in and
around his office.
I found Charleston full of country negroes. Whites of
all classes concur in saying that there is a general impression
throughout the back districts that lands are to be given the
freed people on the sea-coast; and this, I am told, renders
24 
THE FREEDMEN.
them uneasy and unreliable as plantation hands.  Whites
of all classes also concur in saying that they will not work.
"I lost sixteen niggers," said a Charleston gentleman;
"but I don't mind it, for they were always a nuisance, and
you'll find them so in less than a year."  I asked, as usual,
what they are now doing. Two or three of the men went
into the army, one of the women had gone North as a cook,
another is chambermaid on a steamer, and he found three
of the men at work on one wharf the other day.  "But,"
said I, laughing, "I thought the free negro would n't work."
"0 well, this is only a temporary state of affairs, and they'll
all be idle before winter; and I don't look for nothing else
when cold weather comes but to have them all asking me
to take them back; but I sha'n't do it. I would n't give ten
cents apiece for them."
MIany of the private soldiers on duty here tell me that the
planters generally overreach the negroes on every possible
occasion; and my observation among such as I have seen
in town tends to confirm this assertion to a considerable
extent.
Coming up in the cars from Charleston I had for seatmate part of the way one of the delegates to the Convention which meets at Columbia next week. He was a very
courteous and agreeable gentleman, past middle age, and late
the owner of twenty-two negroes. He was good enough to
instruct me at some length in respect to the character of the
negro.  "You Northern people are utterly mistaken in supposing anything can be done with these negroes in a free
condition. They can't be governed except with the whip.
Now on my plantation there was n't much whipping, say
once a fortnight; but the negroes knew they would be
whipped if they did n't behave themselves, and the fear
of the lash kept them in good order." He went on to explain what a good home they always had; laying stress on
the fact that theoy never were obliged to think for themselves,
2
25 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
but were always tenderly cared for, both in health and sickness; "and yet these niggers all left me the day after the
Federals got into Charleston!" I asked where they now
are; and he replied that he had n't seen anybody but his old
cook since they ran away; but he believed they were all at
work except two, who had died. Yet I am told constantly
that these ungrateful wretches, the negroes, cannot possibly
live as free people.
Yesterday morning while I sat in the office of the agent of
the Freedmen's Bureau there came in, with a score of other
men, a planter living in this district, but some sixteen miles
from town. He had a woful tale of an assault upon himself
by one of his "niggers," -" a boy who I broughten up, and
who's allers had a good home down ter my place."  While
the boy was coming in from the street the man turned to
me and explained, "It never don't do no good to show
favor to a nigger, for they's the most ongratefullest creeturs
in the world.' The dreadful assault consisted in throwing
a hatchet at the white man by one of a crowd of negroes
who were having a dispute among themselves, and suddenly
discovered, in the early evening, somebody sneaking along
by the fence. The boy said it was n't a hatchet, but a bit of
brick; and added, that the man was so far away that no one
could tell whether he was white or black, and that he did n't
throw the brick till after he called out and told the man to
go away. I followed the negro out after he had received
his lecture from the officer, and had some talk with him.
"D-n him," said he, referring to his employer, "he never
done nufin all his d-n life but beat me and kick me and
knock me down; an' I hopes I git eben with him some day."
Riding with an ex-Confederate major, we stopped at a
house for water. The owner of the property, which was
a very handsome one, was absent; and it was in charge of
a dozen negroes, former slaves of the proprietor.
" Now here," said the late officer, "here is a place where
26 
THE FREEDMEN.
the negroes always had the pleasantest sort of a home,everything to eat and drink and wear, and a most kind master and mistress."
Pompey, aged about twelve, came to bring us the water.
"Pompey," said the Major, "Pompey, how do you like
your freedom?"
He hung his head, and answered, "Dun know, mawssa."
"0, well, speak right out; don't be afraid; tell us just
how it is now," said he again.
Whereupon Pompey: "Likes to be free man, sah; but
we's all workin' on yer like we did afore."
"That's right, Pompey," said I; "keep on working;
don't be a lazy boy."
" It won't do," said the Major; "he'11 grow up idle and
impudent and worthless, like all the rest."
"No, sah," answered Pompey, "I's free nigger now, and
I's goin' to work."
There is much talk among the country people about a
rising of the blacks. A planter who stopped here last night,
and who lives twelve miles to the west, told me that it was
believed in his neighborhood that they had guns and pistols
hid in the timber, and were organizing to use them. His
ideas were not very clear about the matter; but he appeared
to think they would make serious trouble after the crops
are gathered. Another man, living in Union district, told
the company, with evident pleasure, that they'd been able
to keep control of the niggers up to his section till'bout
three weeks ago; he'lowed thar'd bin some lickin', but no
more'n was good fur the fellows. Now the Federals had
come in, and the negroes were in a state of glad excitement,
and everybody feared there would be bloody business right
away.
A thing that much shocks me is the prevalent indifference
to the negro's fate and life. It is a sad, but solemn fact, that
three fourths of the native whites consider him a nuisance,
27 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
and would gladly be rid of his presence, even at the expense
of his existence. And this in face of the fact that all the
planters are complaining about the insufficiency of labor.
Thus, in Charleston, a merchant told me, with relishing detail, a story to the effect that, soon after the promulgation
of the order against wearing Confederate buttons, a negro
soldier doing duty  in the city halted a young  man, informed him of the regulations, and told him that if he was
seen on the street again wearing the obnoxious buttons, he
would probably be arrested; whereupon the hopeful scion
of the Charleston aristocracy whipped out a large knife,
seized the negro by the beard, and cut his throat. The
soldier died in about a week; but nothing had been done
with the man who killed him. So, too, a man who seems
to be acting as stage-agent here says "a d-d big black
buck nigg,er" was shot near Lewisville about three weeks
ago; and the citizens all shield the man who shot him, and
sanction his course. All the talk of men about the hotel
indicates, that it is held to be an evidence of smartness,
rather than otherwise, to kill a freedman; and I have not
found a man here who seems to believe that it is a sin
against Divine law.
IV.
SCENES IN THE TRACK OF SHERMAN'S ARMY.
COLUMBIA, September 12, 1865.
HE  war was a long time in reaching South Carolina,
but there was vengeance in its very breath when it did
come, -wrath that blasted everything it touched, and set
Desolation on high as the genius of the State.  "A brave
people never before made such a mistake as we did," said a
28 
IN THE ARMY'S TRACK.
little woman who sat near me in the cars while coming up
from Charleston; "it mortifies me now, every day I live, to
think how well the Yankees fought. We had no idea they
could fight half so well."   In such humiliation as hers is
half the lesson of the war for South Carolina.
Columbia is in the heart of Destruction. Being outside
of it, you can only get in through one of the roads built by
Ruin. Being in it, you can only get out over one of the
roads walled by Desolation. You go north thirty-two miles,
and find the end of one railroad; southeast thirty miles, and
find the end of another; south forty-five miles, and find the
end of a third; southwest fifty miles, and meet a fourth;
and northwest twenty-nine miles, and find the end of still
another. Sherman came in here, the papers used to say, to
break up the railroad system of the seaboard States of the
Confederacy. He did his work so thoroughly that half a
dozen years will nothing more than begin to repair the damage, even in this regard.
The railway section of the route from Charleston lies
mostly either in a pine barren or a pine swamp, though
after passing Branchville we came into a more open and
rolling country, with occasional signs of life. Yet we could
not anywhere, after we left the immediate vicinity of the
city, see much indication of either work or existence. The
trim and handsome railway stations of the North, the little
towns strung like beads on an iron string, are things unknown
here. In the whole seventy-seven miles there are but two
towns that make any impression on the mind of a stranger,
-Summerville and George's, - and even these are sinall
and unimportant places. Elsewhere we stopped, as it appeared, whenever the train-men pleased,- the "station"
sometimes existing only in the consciousness of the engineer
and conductor.
Branchville was, however, noticeable because of the place
it once occupied in Northern anxiety. There is where Sher
29 
THE SOUTH SINCE THlE WAE.
man was to meet his fate. Have we forgotten how the Richmond papers of early February spoke? They were not at
liberty to mention the preparations, etc., but they might say,
etc., and the Yankee nation would have sore cause to remember Branchville, etc. Unfortunately, however, Sherman
flanked Branchville, just as he had other places of thrice
its importance, and it missed the coveted renown. It is
nothing but a railroad junction in a pine barren, with a long,
low station-house and cotton warehouse, and three or four
miserable dwellings.
I found the railroad in better condition than I supposed
that I should. The rails are very much worn, but the roadbed is in fair order for nearly the entire distance. The
freight-cars seemed in passably good repair; but the passenger-coaches were the most wretched I ever saw, - old, filthy,
and rickety. On our train was one new feature, - a colored
man and his wife, whose duty it was to wait on the passengers.
I came up from Orangeburg, forty-five miles, by "stage,"
to wit, an old spring-covered market-wagon, drawn by three
jaded horses and driven by Sam, freedman, late slave,- of
the race not able to take care of themselves, yet caring, week
in and week out, for the horses and interests of his employer
as faithfully and intelligently as any white man could. There
were six of us passengers, and we paid ten dollars each passage-money.  We  left Orangeburg at four, P. M.; drove
eight miles;  supped by the roadside;  drove all night
lunched at sunrise by a muddy brook; and reached Columbia'and breakfast at eleven, A. II., thankful that we had
not broken down at midnight, and had met only two or three
minor accidents.  I am quite sure there are more pleasant
ways of travelling than by " stage" in South Carolina at the
present time. Thirty-two miles of the forty-five lie in such
heavy and deep sand that no team can travel faster than at
a moderate walk. For the other thirteen miles the road is
30 
IN THE ARMY'S TRACK.
something better, though even there it is the exception and
not the rule to trot your mules. The river here was formerly spanned by an elegant and expensive bridge, but the
foolish Rebels burned it; and the crossing of the Congaree
is now effected in a ferry, the style and management of
which would disgrace any backwoods settlement of the West.
The " Shermanizing process," as an ex-Rebel colonel
jocosely called it, has been complete everywhere.   To
simply say that the people hate that officer is to put a fact
in very mild terms. Butler is, in their estimation, an angel
when compared to Sherman. They charge the latter with
the entire work and waste of the war so far as their State
is concerned, - even claim that Columbia was burned by
ihis express orders.  They pronounce his spirit "infernal,"
"atrocious," "cowardly," "devilish," and would unquestionably use stronger terms if they were to be had. I have been
told by dozens of men that he could n't walk up the main
street of Columbia in the daytime without being shot; and
three different gentlemen, residing in different parts of the
State, declare that Wade Hampton expresses a purpose to
shoot him at sight whenever and wherever he meets him.
Whatever else the South Carolina mothers forget, they do
not seem likely in this generation to forget to teach their
children to hate Sherman.
Certain bent rails are the first thing one sees to indicate
the advent of his army. They are at Branchville. I looked
at them with curious interest.  "It passes my comprehension
to tell what became of our railroads," said a travelling acquaintance; "one week we had passably good roads, on
which we could reach almost any part of the State, and the
next week they were all gone, - not simply broken up, but
gone; some of the material was burned, I know, but miles
and miles of iron have actually disappeared, gone out of existence." Branchville, as I have already said, was flanked,
and the army did not take it in the line of march, but some
of the boys paid it a visit.
.1
a 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
At Orangeburg there is ample proof that the army passed
that way. About one third of the town was burned. I
found much dispute as to the origin of the fire; and while
certain fellows of the baser sort loudly assert that it was the
work of the Yankee, others of the better class express the
belief that it originated with a resident who was angry at
the Confederate officers. Thereabouts one finds plenty of
railroad iron so bent and twisted that it can never again be
used. The genius which our soldiers displayed in destroying railroads seems remarkable. How effectually they did
it, when they undertook the work in earnest, no pen can
make plain.  "We  could do something in that line, we
thought," said an ex-Confederate captain, "but we were
ashamed of ourselves when we saw how your men could
do it."
We rode over the road where the army marched. Now
and then we found solitary chimneys, but, on the whole,
comparatively few houses were burned, and some of those
were fired, it is believed, by persons from the Rebel army
or from the neighboring locality. The fences did not escape
so well, and most of the planters have had these to build
during the summer. This was particularly the case near
Columbia. Scarcely a tenth of that destroyed appears to
have been rebuilt, and thousands of acres of land of much
richness lie open as a common.
There is a great scarcity of stock of all kinds. WVhat was
left by the Rebel conscription officers was freely appropriated
by Sherman's army, and the people really find considerable
difficulty not less in living than in travelling. Milk, formerly an article much in use, can only be had now in
limited quantities: even at the hotels we have more meals
without than with it. There are more mules than horses,
apparently; and the animals, whether mules or horses, are
all in ill condition and give evidence of severe overwork.
Columbia was doubtless once the gem of the State. It is
32 
COLUMBIA.
as regularly laid out as a checker-board, -the squares
being of uniform length and breadth and the streets of uniform width. What with its broad streets, beautiful shadetrees, handsome lawns, extensive gardens, luxuriant shrubbery, and wealth of flowers, I can easily see that it must
have been a delightful place of residence. No South-Carolinian with whom I have spoken hesitates an instant in
declaring that it was the most beautiful city on the continent; and, as already mentioned, they charge its destruction
directly to General Sherman.
It is now a wilderness of ruins. Its heart is but a mass
of blackened chimneys and crumbling walls. Two thirds
of the buildings in the place were burned, including, without exception, everything in the business portion. Not a
store, office, or shop escaped; and for a distance of three
fourths of a mile on each of twelve streets there was not a
building left.  "They destroyed everything which the most
infernal Yankee ingenuity could devise means to destroy,"
said one gentleman to me; "hands, hearts, fire, gunpowder,
and behind everything the spirit of hell, were the agencies
which they used." I asked him if he was n't stating the
case rather strongly; and he replied that he would make
it stronger if he could.   The residence portion generally
escaped conflagration, though houses were burned in all
sections except the extreme northeastern.
Every public building was destroyed, except the new
and unfinished statehouse. This is situated on the summit
of tableland whereon the city is built, and commands
an extensive view of the surrounding country, and must
have been the first building seen by the victorious and
on-marching Union army. From the summit of the ridge,
on the opposite side of the river, a mile and a half
away, a few shells were thrown at it, apparently by way
of reminder, three or four of which struck it, without
doing any particular damage. With this exception, it was
2*                               c
33 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
unharmed, though the workshops, in which were stored
many of the architraves, caps, sills, &c., were burned,- the
fire, of course, destroying or seriously damaging their contents. The poverty of this people is so deep that there is
no probability that it can be finished, according to the original design, during this generation at least.
The ruin here is neither half so eloquent nor touching
as that at Charleston. This is but the work of flame, and
might have mostly been brought about in time of peace.
Those ghostly and crumbling walls and those long-deserted
and grass-grown streets show the prostration of a community, - such prostration as only war could bring
I find a commendable spirit of enterprise, though, of
course, it is enterprise on a small scale, and the enterprise
of stern necessity. The work of clearing away the ruins is
going on, not rapidly or extensively, to be sure, but something is doing, and many small houses of the cheaper sort
are going up. Yet, at the best, this generation will not
ever again see the beautiful city of a year ago.  Old men
and despondent men say it can never be rebuilt.  "We shall
have to give it up to the Yankees, I reckon," said one of two
gentlemen conversing near me this morning.  "Give it up!"
said the other; "they've already moved in and taken possession without asking our leave." I guess the remark is
true. I find some Northern men already here, and I hear
of more who are coming.
Of course there is very little business doing yet. The
city is, as before said, in the heart of the devastated land.
I judge that twenty thousand dollars would buy the whole
stock of dry goods, groceries, clothing, &c. in store. The
small change of the place is made in shinplasters, printed
on most miserable paper, and issued by the various business
men, "redeemable in United States currency when presented
in sums of two dollars and upwards."  "Greenbacks" and
national currency notes pass without question in the city,
34 
COLUMIBIA.
but are looked upon with suspicion by the country people.
"Having lost a great deal by one sort of paper, we propose
to be careful now," they say. Occasionally one sees a State
bank-note, but they pass for only from twenty-five to sixty
or sixty-five cents on the dollar. There is none of the Confederate money in circulation; though I judge, from what I
hear, that considerable quantities of it are hoarded up in the
belief that things will somehow take such a turn as to one
day give it value.
There is a certain air of easy dignity observable among
the people that I hate not found elsewhere in the State,not even in Chlarleston itself. Something of this is probably
due to the fact that the capital is located here; but more of
it, probably, to the existence of Columbia College. It was
before the war a very flourishing institution, but has been
closed during the last three years.   The old but roomy
buildings are in part occupied by the military authorities,
partly by the professors and officers of the college, and are
partly closed. No indication is given as to the time of reopening the school. It is said by residents that the city contained some of the finest private libraries in the South; but
these, with one or two exceptions, were burned.
The women who consider it essential to salvation to snub
or insult Union officers and soldiers at every possible opportunity do not seerm as numerous as they appeared to be in
Charleston; and indeed marriages between soldiers and
women  of  the middle class are not by  any means the
most uncommon things in the world; while I notice, in a
quiet, unobservant manner, as even the dullest traveller
may, that at least several very elegant ladies do not seem
at all averse to the attentions of the gentlemen of shoulderstraps. Can these things be, and not overcome the latent
fire of Rebellion?
In coming up from Charleston I learned a great many
things, by conversation with persons, and by listening to
35 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
conversation between people; and these are some of the
more important facts thus learned.
Thus, one man insisted with much vehemence that cotton
is king, and that a resolution on the part of the South not to
sell any for a year would bring the North upon its knees.
Another man was very confident that the North depends
entirely upon the cotton trade for a living, and that a failure
to get at least one million bales before spring will bring a
tremendous financial crash.
Another gravely asserted that a state of anarchy prevails
in the entire North; that the returned soldiers are plundering and butchering indiscriminately; and that there has
recently been a most bloody riot in Boston.
Another, and a man of much apparent intelligence, informed me that the negroes have an organized military force
in all sections of the State, and are almost certain to rise
and massacre the whites about Christmas time.
Another had heard, and sincerely believed, that General
Grant's brother-in-law is an Indian, and is on his staff, and
that the President had issued an order permitting the General's son to marry a mulatto girl whom he found in Virginia.
A woman, evidently from the country districts, stated that
there had been a rising of the negroes in Maryland; that a
great many whites had been killed; and that some considerable portion of Baltimore and many of the plantations had
been seized by the negroes. 
And, finally, an elderly gentleman who represented himself as a cotton factor, declared that there would be a terrible
civil war in the North within two years; that England would
compel the repudiation of our National debt and the assumption of the Confederate debt for her guaranty of protection.
The people of the central part of the State are poor,
wretchedly poor; for the war not only swept away their
stock and the material resources of their plantations, but also
all values, - all money, stocks, and bonds,- and generally
36 
CONCLUSIONS.
left nothing that can be sold for money but cotton, and only
a small proportion of the landholders have any of that.
Therefore there is for most of them nothing but the beginning anew of life, on the strictest personal economy and
a small amount of money borrowed in the city. It would
be a benefit of hundreds of millions of dollars if the North
could be made to practise half the economy which poverty
forces upon this people.
They are full of ignorance and prejudices, but they want
peace and quiet, and seem not badly disposed toward the
general government. Individuals there are who rant and
rave and feed on fire as in the old days, but another war is
a thing beyond the possibilities of time. So far as any fear
of that is concerned we may treat this State as we please,
hold it as a conquered province or restore it at once to full
communion in the sisterhood of States. The war spirit is
gone, and no fury can re-enliven it.
The spirit of oppression still exists, however, and military
authority cannot be withdrawn till the relation between employer and employed is put upon a better basis. On the one
hand, the negro in the country districts must be made to
understand, what he has already been taught in the city,
that freedom does not mean idleness. On the other hand,
the late master should specially be  made  to understand
that the spirit of slavery must go to the grave with the
thing itself.  It will not be an easy work to teach either
class its chief lesson.  We  must have patience, - patience,
and faith that neither faints nor falters.
37 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
V.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONVENTION.
COLUMBIA, September 13, 1865.
N obedience to the proclamation of Provisional Gov    ernor Perry, the delegates of the people of South Carolina assembled at noon to-day in State Convention for the
purpose of repealing the ordinance of secession and remodelling the State Constitution. The Convention met in the
Baptist Church, in which the Secession Convention of 1860
originally assembled; though that, after two sessions, adjourned to Charleston, where the ordinance of secession was
passed. That Convention numbered 168 members. This
has but 124, - that is, the proclamation fixes this as the
number. In point of fact, however, the number present will
not probably exceed 115; for it is known that three parishes
held no elections, while Bishop Lynch, of Charleston, is in
Europe, and Wade Hampton is not expected here. There
were present to-day 101 delegates.
Five parishes are entirely unrepresented. There were
two or three precincts in each of three districts where, so
far as can be learned, there was no voting; but there is not
even a pretence on the part of anybody that there was anywhere in the State any interference with, or restraint upon,
the elections by the military. The Convention is the free
choice of the people. In one district, Anderson, the various
candidates were called upon to show their hands; elsewhere
the canvass passed off without speech-making, and only the
four delegates from that district   " district" answering to
"county" in the North - are bound by any pledges.
Four at least of the delegates have national reputation,James L. Orr, late Federal representative, ex-Rebel colonel,
and ex-Confederate senator; F. W. Pickens, late Federal
38 
THE STATE CONVENTION.
representative, and the first Secession governor; Alfred
Huger, postmaster at Charleston for the last twenty-five
years; and Samuel McGowan, late major-general in the
Rebel army, and one of the bravest officers this State gave
the Confederacy. One delegate, James Farrow, was four
years a member of the Rebel Congress. Twelve, namely,
David L. Wardlaw and Thomas Thomson  of Abbeville
District, James L. Orr of Anderson, J. J. Brabham of Barnwell, John A. Inglis and Henry McIver of Chesterfield,
James Conner and J. Du Pre of Charleston, J. P. Richardson of Clarendon, R. G. Mi. Dunovant of Edgefield, William
R. Robertson of Fairfield, and John W. Carlisle of Spartanburg, were also delegates in the Secession Convention.
The people have cut loose from many of their old leaders,
and others of that class have found their graves since the
war began; but there are perhaps a score of delegates whose
faces are more or less familiar to persons who have attended
the sessions of the South Carolina General Assembly any
time within a dozen or fifteen years. Of those who have
some time been United States officers other than postmaster
there are, I believe, four. Of those who were officers in the
Rebel army there are not less than twenty-five or thirty, including at least four generals and six colonels. The halfdozen fellows - of the blunt and blotchy nose, beefy and
bloated face, shining and swallow-tailed coat - who always
attend conventions as delegates are here, and occupy the
chief seats. So are also here the half-dozen country justices
of the peace, no less knowing than usual, and fruitful with
platitudes and resolutions.
For the rest, three fourths of the delegates have titles,captain, major, colonel, judge. It is the fashion of the South,
as of the West, I suppose. There are a dozen young men,
and about the same number of very old men; but otherwise
they range mostly from forty-five to fifty-five years of age.
Gray and grayish heads are numerous. It is n't by any
39 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
means a prepossessing body. The average Southern head
does n't show near as much intellectual force and vigor as
the average Northern head; and the beauty of the South
is solely in the faces of its young women,- half of it at
least in the faces of its mulatto and quadroon girls. A few
of the delegates are clad wholly, and very many of them
partly, in homespun. Many coats show Confederate buttons,- from the necessity of poverty rather than the choice
of disloyalty, I judge. Many of the members are rough,
ignorant country fellows, and the Convention will be managed by less than a score of delegates.  The difference between the two classes of delegates - those who lead and
those who are led - is much greater than could exist in any
Northern body of the same numbers; not that the one class
is any way superior to the best class of a Northern State, but
that the other class is almost immeasurably inferior. Half
these men are so deficient in capacity and knowledge that
scarcely one of them could by any possibility get into a New
England convention.
That, in the stress of war, South Carolina should implore
to be made a colony of Great Britain does not now seem
half so strange to me as it did nine months ago. Her government was republican in name, but not in fact; while the
whole under-current of her society set toward monarchical
institutions. Everybody, even now, dreads popular elections; dozens of delegates have said to me that it is n't well
to allow the people to elect their own rulers; and this Convention will no more than give the election of governor,
lieutenant-governor, representatives, members of the General
Assembly, and Presidential electors, to the people, leaving
the great host of other officers to the appointment of the
Governor or the election of the Legislature.  Many of these
delegates were elected, not because they represented the
will of the parish or district, but because they represented
the will of some great family. It was the English system
40 
CHOOSING A PRESIDENT.
reproduced here, with scarcely a variation. A dozen or
more boast of their twenty years in the Legislature. It
was not a republican form of government; but, more than
that, it was not, is not, and will not soon be, a republican
community. "It will not do," say the leaders, -men who,
personally, are easy, agreeable, and abundant in courtesies
to the stranger,-" it will not do to put power in the hands
of the common people." Two delegates have said to me at
different times, "It was a great mistake when we passed our
free-suffrage law."
The delegates were called to order by Judge Robertson
of Fairfield District, on whose motion Franklin J. Moses,
of Sumter District, was made temporary chairman. Judge
Robertson was one of the members of the Convention of
1860. Mr. Moses is of Hebrew descent, and has been a
member of the State Senate for over twenty years.
The Convention at once proceeded to business, without
any remarks from the chairman. Two gentlemen were
appointed temporary secretaries, and the delegates then
presented their credentials and signed the roll of the Convention; after which about a dozen who had not taken the
amnesty oath advanced to the space in front of the platform
and were sworn thereto. They were, without an exception,
men whose appearance marked them as from the back
country.
The election of a permanent President was called; and
leave being given, several gentlemen were nominated.
Hon. C. M1. Dudley, of Marlboro District, who has been
known from the beginning as a Union man, though he took
but little part in public affairs, was presented by James L.
Orr. The Charleston delegation nominated Hon. David L.
Wardlaw, of Abbeville District, who was originally opposed
to secession, but acquiesced in the action of the State. Mr.
T. M. Dawkins, a delegate from Union District, was also
nominated, but rose and asked his friends not to use his
41 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
name. Wade Hampton, of cavalry fame, who is one of the
Columbia delegates, was suggested; but before the voting began, Mr. Huger, of Charleston, and postmaster there during
Buchanan's administration, inquired if General Hampton
was nominated by permission; adding, that his veneration
for him was such that he could not consent to seeing his
name put up unless by his express desire.  That produced
its withdrawal.   He has not been in the city since the Convention was called. The contest was, therefore, narrowed
down to one between Mr. Dudley and Mr. Wardlaw, both
of them men of unexceptionable private character. The
first ballot was Wardlaw, 42; Dudley, 36; Dawkins, 12;
Hampton, 5; Scattering, 5.  The second call gave Wardlaw, 55; Dudley, 35; Dawkins, 9; and blank, 1. Judge
WVardlaw was thereupon declared elected.
He is a small and kindly mannered gentleman, well along
in years, and one of the judges of the Court of Sessions
and Common Pleas. He has served many years in the
General Assembly, and has often been elected speaker of
the lower House. He was one of the Union men of the
fall of 1860, accepted the decree of the State, was a delegate in the Secession Convention and chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Constitution. His home is in
the northwestern part of the State, beyond the route of
Sherman's army. Delegates say there is no particular signification in his election over either of the other candidates.
His remarks on taking his seat were very brief, and also
without any special significance. He hoped the Convention
would soon restore the State to the Union; and urged the
delegates to do their duty in sincere and earnest spirit, that
Peace and her blessings might once more abide in the whole
land.
It seems that the fire-eaters are not yet all dead; for as
soon as a committee had been appointed to wait on the Governor and tell him the Convention was ready for business,
42 
A BLAST FROM THE FIRE-EATERS.
Mr. A. P. Aldrich, a delegate from the district of Barnwell, in the central part of the State, and in. which there
was a slave population of 17,400 to a white population of
12,000, offered the following resolution, which he asked might
be printed, and made the special order for to-morrow: -
Resolved, That, under the present extraordinary circumstances,
it is both wise and politic to accept the condition in which we are
placed; to endure patiently the evils which we cannot avert or
correct; and to await calmly the time and opportunity to effect
our deliverance from unconstitutional rule.
In this resolution there is, of course, the very essence of
Rebellion.  More than one delegate saw the point at the first
reading by MIr. Aldrich himself, and when it had been reread by the President, a sharp running debate of half or
three quarters of an hour took place, in which the mover was
opposed to four or five of the ablest men in the Convention.
Mr. Dudley protested briefly against the passage or printing of any such resolution, and moved that it be laid on the
table.
Mr. Aldrich responded, that he did not ask debate now,
but would be prepared to defend the resolution to-morrow.
Judge Frost, of Charleston, also expressed the idea that
the resolution was very objectionable. He believed it indicated a spirit at war with the best interests of the State, and
repugnant to the feelings of the great body of her citizens.
Ex-Governor Pickens tersely said, in a very feeling manner: "It does n't become South Carolina to vapor or swell
or strut or brag or bluster or threat or swagger; she points
to her burned cities, her desolate plantations, her mourning
hearths, her unnumbered graves, her widows and her orphans, her own torn and bleeding body, - this, she says, is
the work of war; and she bids us bind up her wounds and
pour in the oil of peace, -bids us cover her great nakedness; and we must do it, even if it needs that in so doing
we go backwards! "
43 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Mr. Aldrich replied, that he was not satisfied with the
condition of things; that there had always been in the
country an unconstitutional Republican party and a constitutional Democratic party; that the South had always acted
with the latter, and that her hope and salvation lies only
in an immediate union with the Democratic party of the
North; that the State is now ground under the iron heel
of a military despotism, repugnant alike to her people and
the spirit of the Constitution; that for his part, he would
not submit without an indignant protest; that he hoped for
the speedy overthrow of the party now in power; and that
he meant just what the resolution says, - to be quiet till we
are strong enough, through the aid of the Democratic party
of the North, to get a constitutional government.
Mr. McGowan, of Abbeville District, late major-general in the Confederate service, and bearing the marks
of several wounds, denounced  the resolution in a brief
speech of thrilling eloquence, which  brought hearty applause from the delegates and the galleries.   "I protest
with all the earnestness of my nature against this resolution. It is not true that South Carolina carries a dagger
underneath her vestments; not true that she stands with
obedient words on her lips and disloyal spirit in her heart.
The work she begins to-day she begins in good faith. She
was the first to secede, and she fought what she believed to
be the good fight with all her energies of heart and head
and hand and material resources. Whatever may have been
charged against her, no one has ever dared charge her with
double-dealing.   Her word is her bond.   She is so poor
that it is no figure of speech to say she has lost everything
but honor.   Pass this resolution, and you rob her of her
honor, and bow in the dust the head of every one of her
true sons. She has seen enough of war; in God's name I
demand that she shall not be made to appear as if she still
coveted fire and sword."
44 
THE GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
The Aldrich resolution went to the table with only four
dissenting voices, being refused even the poor privilege of
going to the printer or to a committee.
Some debate followed on the question of rules for the Convention, in which a member having suggested that the rules
of the Convention of 1860 were specially adapted for the
government of such bodies, and might therefore be adopted
for use now, Mr. Orr pointedly remarked that he thought
as little reference as possible to that Convention would be
desirable. A committee was therefore appointed to prepare
rules, and the Convention then adjourned.
COLUMBIA, September 14, 1865.
The Provisional Goverhor sent in his message to the Convention at noon. It was read by his son, who is one of the
delegates, and its reading occupied about twenty-five minutes.  What he has to say on the subjects of slavery and
negro suffrage appears in the following paragraphs:  "Under the war-making power, the military authorities of the
United States have abolished slavery in all of the seceding States.
The oath you have solemnly taken to' abide by and faithfully
support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing Rebellion, with reference to the emancipation of
slaves,' requires you, in good faith, to abolish slavery in your new
or amended Constitution.   The express terms on which your
pardons have issued stipulate that you shall never again own or
employ slave labor. Moreover, it is impossible for South Carolina ever to regain her civil rights and be restored to the Union
till she voluntarily abolishes slavery, and declares, by an organic
law, that neither'slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted,' shall ever again exist within the limits of the State.
Until this is done we shall be kept under military rule.
"The radical Republican party North are looking with great
interest to the action of the Southern States in reference to negro
suffrage; and whilst they admit that a man should be able to read
and write and have a property qualification in order to vote, yet
45
I 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
they contend that there should be no distinction between voters
on account of color. They forget that this is a white man's government, and intended for white men only; and that the Supreme
Court of the United States has decided that the negro is not an
American citizen under the Federal Constitution. To extend
universal suffrage to the' freedmen' in their present ignorant and
degraded condition would be little less than folly and madness.
It would be giving to the man of wealth and large landed possessions in the State a most undue influence in all elections. He
would be enabled to march to the polls with his two or three hundred' freedmen' as employeds, voting as he directed, and control
all elections. The poor white men in the election districts would
have no influence, or their influence would be overpowered by
one man of large landed estate. That each and every State of
the Union has the unquestioned right of deciding for herself who
shall exercise the right of suffrage is beyond all dispute. You
will settle this grave question as the interest and honor of the
State demand."
After the reading of the message, the organization of the
Convention was completed by disposing of the only contestedseat case. It was that of St. Luke's parish, which includes
Hilton Head Island. It appears that Mr. David McGregor
received the vote of one precinct, the voters, eighty-two in
number, being mostly like himself, of Northern birth, but
resident on the island for three or four years, and legally
qualified under the laws of the State as electors. Mr. L. F.
Youmans received seventy-five votes,   the aggregate of the
three other precincts in the parish. The island people were
unable to learn the names of the regular managers of elections, or, in fact, that the other precincts of the parish intended voting; and after much fruitless effort to find the
proper authorities to receive the poll, they held a meeting
and appointed their own managers. Mr. McGregor brought
the certificate of these managers, - Mr. Youmans that of the
regular managers. The case was referred to a special committee of three, who reported in favor of Mr. Youmans, on
46 
THE UP-COUNTRY AND LOW-COUNTRY QUARREL. 47
the ground that he alone held the proper certificate of election. The case was decided on its merits, without regard
to the fact that Mrr. McGregor is a Northern man; and he
expresses himself fully satisfied with the decision.
VI.
THE LEADERS OF THE CONVENTION AND THE REPEAL
OF THE SECESSION ORDINANCE.
COLUMBIA, September 16, 1865.
N  Charleston and on the route hither I several times
asked what would be the probable length of the State
Convention, and was generally answered, "Not over a week,
at most."   I even found some gentlemen who thought it
could finish its work in four days. The four days are gone,
and the work is but fairly begun.
"It is the reproach of South Carolina abroad that her
Constitution is less popular and republican in its provisions
than that of any other State in the Union," says Provisional
Governor Perry in his message to the Convention. If the
sea-coast members could generally have their way this Constitution would scarcely be popularized in the least. The
Convention could easily have done what they desired should
be done in even less than four days. The upper-country
members, however, have from the first said that no one need
look for an adjournment under two weeks, unless the coast
delegates gave them their way without much debate.
In fact there is as much difference of sentiment between
the two classes of delegates as though one class came from
this State and the other from Indiana. There has been a
conflict going on between the two sections of the State for
thirty years, which rages now with the more vigor because 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
outside difficulties have compelled unity of action for the
past five years. It grows mainly out of what is technically
called the parish system of representation, whereby the legislation from the beginning of the century has practically been
controlled by the city of Charleston, and has actually been
in the hands of the members of the General Assembly from
that city and county and three other counties. Under that
system, which originated soon after the settlement of the
State, and was indorsed in the formation of the original
and all subsequent State Constitutions, half a dozen counties
on the sea-coast cast as many votes in the Legislature as the
balance of the State. In the early days of the State's existence, when nearly all the wealth and population were in
these counties, the system worked no serious injustice; but
of late years it has proved injurious to the interests of the
up-country, and has kept up an ever-increasing feud between
the two sections. Originating chiefly in this cause, there are
now a dozen different questions of State policy in respect to
which there is more or less bitterness of feeling between
the two classes of delegates.   Those from the up-country
are determined that a full and fair settlement shall now
be had.  "We  have drawn the sword and thrown away the
scabbard," said one of them on the floor of the Convention.
"I verily believe our people will fight on it," said another to
me last evening. Of course this talk is of the die-in-the-lastditch sort; but it serves to show the existing feeling between
the two sections of the State.
The record of the first four days of the Convention shows
that there is a good deal of life in the body. It also proves
that the delegates are generally well disposed toward the
government. That they have fallen in love with President
Johnson or with the Union party of the North, or with those
whom everybody down here styles Yankees, no one even
pretends.   They are subdued Rebels, some of them  are
even conquered Rebels; but few are anything more. They
48 
LEADERS OF THE CONVENTION.
have a very wholesome fear of the government, and a very
wholesome respect for the power of the North. The whole
criew of pestilent fellows does not number over a dozen.
There are also about the same number who go to the other
extreme, and are disgustingly servile and abject.   With
these exceptions, the delegates are generally frank, plainspoken men, owning that the South is beaten, desiring
nothing so much as long years of peace, acquiescent in the
overthrow of slavery, and mostly disposed to make the best
they can of the freedman, but utterly without faith in his
capacity to labor and take care of himself; anxious to be
again in full fellowship in the Union, and ardently longing
for the reopening of trade with the North.
The chief man in the Convention is Benjamin F. Perry,
Provisional Governor of the State; not that he himself is
on the list of delegates, but that his position, in the peculiar circumstances of the hour, makes his word and wish of
very unusual significance. The executive office has been
removed here for the time being; the rooms of the Governor at the hotel are full at all hours when the Convention is
not in session; the Governor sometimes spends the whole
day at the Convention; his son and private secretary is one
of the delegates; it is an almost every-hour occurrence, in
the debates, that the question is asked, "Is that view approved by the Provisional Governor?" or that the remark
is made, "I think we had better consult the Governor first."
So it may be said that he is the leader of the Convention.
He is a tall, large, straight man, who carries a gold-headed
cane and wears gold-bowed spectacles. Beside this, he
has a very long, large nose, and a very long, large, prominent
chin. He wears a wig, and has a smoothly shaven face.
He looks like a man of power, and has an inoffensively
self-satisfied appearance.
James L. Orr has a great deal to do with matters and
things,  and     is at the head of one of the eight standing corn              3                                  D
49 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
mittees, - that on the Executive Department of the Constitution. His public life is well known. He was considered
one of the coolest-headed and soundest-hearted Union men
in the State five years ago this summer; but, for all that,
he was one of the leading members in the Secession Convention, and in the Rebel Senate during the whole existence
of the Confederate government. Now he is one of the leading reconstructionists. Many of the delegates distrust him,
- they say he changes from one side to the other too easily.
Yet he has much influence in the body. He is over six feet
in height, and of at least one hundred and ninety pounds
weight. His face is florid and rubicund to the last degree.
His nose is short, but prominent; his forehead high and
bald. He is ready and forcible in debate, and carries himself
with a very democratic air.
Francis W. Pickens, ex-Governor of the "Independent
State of South Carolina," as it was called at his inauguration, is a battered old wreck,- short and squarely built,
with a large and squarish head, a broad and flat face, a
small and insignificant nose, round and piggish eyes, and
broad and high forehead. He has bristly iron-gray moustache and chin whiskers, and wears a brown wig,- whereby
there is a very peculiar and noticeable contrast. His voice
is feeble, his manner colloquial, his air jaunty.  He is third
on Orr's committee, and is on his feet oftener than any other
man. He eats his humble pie with some ostentation, and is
specially solicitous that nothing shall be done to offend His
Excellency the Provisional Governor, or His Excellency
the President of the United States. His course and lan guage are such as to call from delegates in private conversa tion frequent reference to the day when Fort Sumter sur rendered, and to the speech he made on that occasion, -
"The Independent State of South Carolina has humbled the
flag that no nation on earth ever before humbled; it has
been brought down in obedience to the behest of a sover
50 
LEADERS OF THlE CONVENTION.
eign State, on whose soil it shall never again be raised,"
&c., &c.
John A. Inglis is at the head of the committee on the
Legislative Department, and is, perhaps, the most clearly
intellectual man in the Convention. He is one of the three
Chancery judges of the State,- a medium-sized man, trim,
compact, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, erect, lithe,
clear-headed, clear-eyed, clear-voiced, always ready, selfpossessed, marvellously impassioned on occasion, - a man
whose face shows forty-five years while his hair indicates
sixty. He was a member of the Convention of December,
1860; introduced the original resolution declaring it the
duty of South Carolina to secede from the Federal Union;
moved to exclude the reporters of Northern papers from the
floor of the hall; was chairman of the Committee on Federal
Relations; and, as such, reported the ordinance of secession,
and carried it through with swift energy. He is of spotless
personal integrity, frankly admits the defeat of the South,
has no love for the Yankees, swears by South Carolina, and
lost by the war a handsome house and one of the choicest
private libraries in the State.
C. MI. Dudley is at the head of the committee on General
Amendments to the Constitution, -is tall, ungainly, awkward, round-shouldered, slab-sided, shambling in his step,
and homely of face as a man well can be. With all this, he is
a man of much ability and rare good sense, and is unquestionably looked up to as a leader by at least a third of the delegates. He is pre-eminently the advocate of the strictest
economy in public affairs, and is mentioned as a strong Union
man so long as there were any Union men in the State.
A. P. Aldrich is the leader of the impracticable, unconquered element, - the men who are sullen or spiteful, the
untamed fire-eaters. They number less than a dozen, though
there are a dozen more who would like to follow his lead.
He was a quartermaster in the Rebel army.  "He'd feel
51 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
differently if he'd met as many of your troops on the
battle-field as I have," said one of the delegates, when
I asked him about Mr. Aldrich. He is noticeable for his
long and tumbled hair, and his long full whisker and moustache.  He is able and forcible in debate, and "a real good
fellow," personally.
The first ordinance introduced into the Convention was
the following:  "We, the delegates of the people of the State of South Carolina, in General Convention met, do ordain, That the ordinance
passed in Convention, December 20, 1860, withdrawing this State
from the Federal Union, be, and the same hereby is, repealed."
This ordinance came from ex-Governor Pickens, on the
first day of the session, when it went over under the rules.
On the second day he called it up for immediate action,
with the single remark that he thought it the first business
for the Convention, in order that the country might see that
South Carolina is in earnest in her profession of a desire to
conform to the results of the war.
Mr. Huger, the old postmaster of Charleston, seconded
the motion for immediate action, and made a rambling, old
man's speech of twenty minutes' length, which the house
applauded out of personal feeling for him, probably. He is
over eighty years of age, is tall, and not much bent, has a
face indicative of great force and strength of character, and
wears long white hair, -the general appearance of his face
reminding one of the pictures of Calhoun, whom the old
man eulogized. The noticeable feature of the speech was
its language of devotion to South Carolina.  "She is my
mother; I have all my life loved what she loved, and hated
what she hated; everything she had I made my own, and
every act of hers was my act; as I have had but one hope,
to live with her, so now I have but one desire, to die
on her soil and be laid in her bosom. If I am wrong in
everything else, I know I am right in loving South Caro
52 
REPEAL OF THE SECESSION ORDINANCE.
lina,- know I am right in believing that, whatever glory
the future may bring our reunited country, it can neither
brighten nor tarnish the glory of South Carolina. She has
passed through the agony and the bloody sweat; and as we
now return her to the Federal Union, let every man do his
duty bravely before the world, trustfully before God, remembering each man for himself that he is a South-Carolinian. She has been devastated by the invader, reviled by
the hireling, mocked by the weak-hearted; but she has accepted the invitation to return, - accepted it in good faith,
with the assurance of a word better than a bond; and now,
no matter what she gives up, no matter what there is to
endure and to forget, let us all do our duty as becomes her
children, counting it our chiefest honor to stand by her in
evil report as well as in good report, honor alike to live
with her and to die with her!"
The scene was in the highest degree  dramatic, -the
venerable old man standing between the platform and a
table, with a supporting hand on each, and speaking in the
most impassioned manner, with a clear, resonant voice that
easily filled the whole church; every member of the Convention sitting with strained attention; the galleries bending over in silence, the better to see and hear; a clerk
standing near the feeble Huguenot Carolinian to pass the
glass of water while he spoke, and reach for him his staff
when he had concluded.
Rev. Dr. Boyce, of Greenville, and President of the
Baptist Theological Seminary at that place, thought the ordinance insufficient in terms for the desired purpose; and at
his suggestion it was sent to a special committee of three,
consisting of Governor Pickens, General McGowan, and
Judge Lesesne.
On the following day, the third of the session, it was
reported, by Governor Pickens, in this form:  "We, the people of the State of South Carolina, by our dele
53 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
gates in Convention met, do ordain, That the ordinance adopted
by us in Convention on the twentieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, entitled,
an' Ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of South
Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America,"'  is
hereby repealed."
Immediately after the report was read, the Governor
called for action on the ordinance, and it was at once put
on its passage, without debate. The recorded vote was,Yeas 105, Nays 3.
And so, on the 15th of September, 1865, the State of
South Carolina, after nearly five years of rebellious absence,
in which she has destroyed all her living and very nigh
destroyed herself, comes home. There are no cheers or
huzzas, no salvos of artillery and clanging of glad bells, as
when she set up the proud palmetto standard, - only suggestive silence and the eloquent catching for breath of a
multitude of men.
The three nays were Messrs. A. P. Aldrich, J. J. Brabham, and J. MI. Whetstone, the delegates from Barnwell
District. Mr. Aldrich explained, that, as the conquering
party had carried on the war for four years on the theory
that the States were not out of the Union, he could n't see
any sense in repealing an ordinance of secession. His tone
and manner were those of petty spite.
By a curious coincidence, immediately after the passage
of this ordinance, there came to light the following very
remarkable resolutions, which were introduced by William
Wallace, one of the delegates from this city: -
"TVWhereas, By the fortunes of war, our former noble and beloved Chief Magistrate, Jefferson Davis, is now languishing in
prison, awaiting his trial for treason; and
"Whereas, The fanatics of the North, not satisfied with the
widespread ruin and desolation which they have caused, are
shrieking for his blood;
54 
ASKING PARDON FOR JEFF DAVIS.
"Resohled, That it is the paramount duty of South Carolina,
who led the way in our late struggle for independence, and for
which struggle he is now suffering, to use every lawful means in
her power to avert the doom which threatens him.
"Resolved, That to this end, a deputation of members of this
body be sent to the city of Washington, in behalf of the people
of South Carolina, to ask of His Excellency the President of the
United States to extend to the Honorable Jefferson Davis that
clemency which he has shown to us, who are equally the sharers of
his guilt, if guilt there be, and which is accomplishing so much
toward restoring the peace and harmony of the Union."
The fluttering began before the reading of these resolutions was finished, and several members were on their feet
at once. MIr. Dudley got the floor, and quietly suggested
that this was scarcely appropriate language for a body which
had just returned the State to the Union, and was relying
on the generosity of the North for full admission again into
the sisterhood of States. Two or three other delegates
made remarks to the same effect; and Mr. Wrallace then
accepted as a substitute a simple resolution appointing a
committee to memorialize the President in favor of the pardon of Davis, Stephens, MIagrath, and Trenholm.
In this connection, I cannot forbear quoting the remarkable language in which the little daily paper of this city,
edited by the novelist William Gilmore Simms, who has
always been called a Union man, speaks of this matter. It
is as follows:  "These appeals are eminently proper, coming, not merely'from
the people of South Carolina, but from those of all the several
States of the Confederacy. How should any of their people be
able to lift their heads if harm should come to any of their leaders? President Johnson must perceive that to save these people
from shame, he must shelter these, their representative men, from
harm. We have no doubt that he will do so, and we are willing
to leave this matter in his hands. He can entertain no base or
little revenges.   We  take for granted that he will dismiss,
without impediment or bond, all these eminent persons of state;
55 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
that he will give to Mr. Davis the freedom of the country or the
use of a frigate to convey him to foreign shores. HIe can do no less."
During the four days of the Convention a large number
of resolutions have been presented and referred to the appropriate committees. They touch almost every conceivable
question of State policy, but are merely representative of
individual views, and need not, therefore, be given in this
record. They are indicative, however, of a disposition to
make some sweeping and radical changes in the Constitution.
The attendance on the sessions of the Convention is not
large, but it is increasing daily. Possibly one hundred persons were in the galleries of the church to-day. No ladies
were present on the first day; on the second day there were
four, evidently of the middle class of society; yesterday the
number from that class was increased; and to-day there
were also present about a score of those who evidently
number themselves among the elite of the city.
VII.
ACTION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
COLUMBIA, September 19, 1865.
HERE   were two things which, in a national point of
view, it was essential that this Convention should do as
soon as possible, - declare the abolition of slavery, and repeal
the Ordinance of Secession. Ex-Governor Pickens, of swift
repentance, saw this so clearly, that he introduced an ordinance, on the first day of the session, to accomplish both
these things. I have already related how the Ordinance of
Secession was repealed. The slavery question was settled
to-day, not by an ordinance, but by the adoption of a clause
for the Constitution.
" It is impossible," said Governor Perry in his message,
56 
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
"it is impossible for South Carolina ever to regain her civil
rights and be restored to the Union till she voluntarily abolishes slavery, and declares by an organic law that neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall ever again exist within the limits of the State." The
several steps by which this consummation was reached may
properly be shown in considerable detail.
There are two or three delegates who will not so much as
admit that slavery is overthrown, hoping, I judge, that the
general government will one day be glad to settle the question by paying a certain compensation for the sake of quiet.
There are two or three more who think the whole matter
ought to be referred to the Legislature. The great body,
however, were ready on the opening day of the session to
take action upon it in some form. Propositions embracing
clauses for the new Constitution were therefore submitted by
several members, in form as follows:
By ex-Governor Pickens, of Edgefield District: "The
fortunes of war, together with the proclamations of the President of the United States and the generals in the field commanding, having decided that domestic slavery is abolished;
therefore, under the circumstances, we acquiesce in said
proclamations, and do hereby ordain implicit obedience to
the Constitution of the United States and all laws made in
pursuance thereof."
By James H. Ryon, of Fairfield District: "The slaves
in South Carolina having been de facto emancipated by the
action of the Federal authorities, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall ever be reestablished in this State."
By James L. Orr, of Anderson District: "Slavery, except as a punishment for crime after due conviction, is forever prohibited in this State."
3*
57 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
By Henry D. Lesesne, of Charleston: "Slavery having
been abolished by the military power of the United States, it
shall never be re-established in this State."
By James Winsmith, of Spartanburg District: "Slavery
having been abolished by the proclamations of the President
of the United States and the military authorities of the same,
neither negro slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter exist in this State, except as a punishment for crime
of which the party shall have been duly convicted by law."
By Samuel McGowan, of Abbeville District: "The emancipation of slaves having actually taken place, slavery shall
not hereafter be re-established in this State."
By William H. Perry, of Greenville District: "Slavery
and involuntary servitude are hereby abolished in South
Carolina, and shall not again exist in the State except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted."
These various paragraphs show in what form the subject
originally presented itself to the minds of such members as
were specially interested in it. It will be observed that five
of these seven delegates deemed it necessary to recite the
J
manner in which the overthrow of slavery was accomplished.
Some of these propositions went to one committee, and
some to another; and, curiously enough, their reports showed
that one committee represents that wing of the Convention
which insists that the method of the abolition of slavery shall
be declared, while the other is willing, like a small number
of delegates, to accept the fact without any explanatory
words. These reports were as follows:
By the Committee on Amendments to the Constitution:
"Slavery having ceased to exist in this State, it shall not
hereafter be permitted or re-established."
By the Committee on Ordinances: "Slavery having actually been destroyed by the military force of the United
58 
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
States, it is hereby declared that slavery no longer exists in
the State of South Carolina, and that all persons heretofore
held as slaves are free; and it is further declared and ordained, that slavery shall not again be established in this
State; provided, however, that the General Assembly may
adjudge involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
It seemed to an outsider like myself that there was no
essential difference between these two propositions, but that
the former, being the more direct, was to be preferred. The
action of the Convention, however, was to prove that the
happiness of a people, not to say the preservation of a State,
may depend upon a nice observance of the distinction betwixt tweedledee and tweedledum.
The latter of the foregoing reports came first on the calendar, and was therefore taken up as the order of the day.
The discussion that followed had two branches and a side
issue. The first branch turned on the question whether the
necessary action should be taken by the Convention or by
the Legislature; the second had to do with the phraseology
of the ordinance, regard being had to the peculiar sensibilities of the people, and to the "historical fact" that the slaves
were emancipated by Federal authority; while the side issue
concerned the subject of negro suffrage.
Mr. L. W. R. Blair, a delegate from Kershaw District,
a very tall and very homely man, with remarkably retreating
forehead, an immense and immensely red nose, no chin to
speak of, and a weak and straggling grizzly whisker and
moustache, whose misfortune it is to be ignorant of the fact
that he lives in the nineteenth century, and also of the other
fact that there has been a great war, and who, of course sublimely ignores all such things as emancipation proclamations,
Congressional enactments, military orders, etc., gravely rose
in the back part of the church and proposed the following as
a substitute for the Ordinance Committee's report:
I
59 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
" Resol:ed, That the question of slavery and all questions con nected therewith be referred to the Legislature of the State,
whose duty it shall be to consult with the proper authorities of the
United States, and learn the intention of the government in re spect to the institution of slavery; and authority is hereby given
to the Legislature to take such action as seems conducive to the
best interests of the State of South Carolina, and such action,
when taken, shall be final and conclusive; and the Legislature
shall have power to make laws applicable to colored persons
alone, and shall enact such laws as are needful to prevent negroes
and persons of color from engaging in any business or pursuit but
such as involves manual labor, mining, road-making, agriculture,
and the production of naval stores."
Mr. Blair proceeded to support this astounding proposition
in a speech of half an hour's length. He was willing, he
said, to give up slavery, but he was not willing to do it without some guaranties.  He had great confidence in the President, but none in the party now in power in the North.
That party was already clamoring for concessions which the
South could never grant. Every true son of South Carolina
would die rather than grant the right of suffrage to the negroes of the State. He was opposed to making a full surrender of slavery till the State had some guaranty that such
surrender would bring full restoration of political rights to
her people. Moreover, might it not hereafter appear that
some pecuniary compensation would be adjudged as due to
the South for the destruction of her slave property? He
would not take any action till the whole subject had been
considered in all its bearings, and the Legislature was the
only body that could do that.
MIr. Dawkins, of Union District, chairman of the committee which made the report, said the committee had endeavored to choose language which would accomplish the end he
believed all men desired, and would be as little distasteful as
possible to the people of the State. The ordinance simply
declared that slavery had been actually destroyed by the
60
I
I
i
I 
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
military force of the United States. Nothing was said as to
the right of that force to thus act; and, on the other hand,
there was nothing in the ordinance to preclude any man or
the State from asking compensation, or from sharing in it
if it was voluntarily tendered. He was not wedded to the
particular language of the report, but would accept any other
that would accomplish the same end. He was, however,
wholly opposed to the proposed amendment. I feel certain
that it is to the last degree impracticable. We shall have
no Legislature till we declare slavery abolished. However it
may displease any of us to admit it, the fact is that we are
at the mercy of the authorities at Washington.   We  have
been beaten in the contest, and we can have no government
but such as is agreeable to them. We are now under military rule. True, we have a provisional governor, but he is,
after all, only a military governor with another name. I am
glad to bear testimony to the fact that the military authorities are disposed to concede to us every possible advantage
consistent with their views of public safety, and to see that
there is a prospect of the speedy restoration to us of our civil
rights. But I am confident that such restoration will only
follow prompt and graceful acquiescence on our part in the
action of the authorities on the slavery question; and I repeat, that I believe we can have no Legislature till we declare that slavery is abolished and shall never again be
established. What, then, is the part of wisdom and good
sense? Is it to be stubborn and obstinate? There is but
one condition of society worse than military rule: shall we
recklessly provoke that? Shall we not the rather do what
the plain duty of the hour requires, and thus relieve ourselves, as soon as may be, from military rule?
MIr. Orr said he would accept the report of the committee,
though he would have chosen fewer words.  The election
of Mr. Lincoln, five years ago, was taken by the people of
the South as an evidence that the people of the North were
61 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
not disposed to allow them what they believed to be their
plain rights. The State seceded. We went out to save
slavery.  Other States followed the example of South Carolina. The Confederacy was formed, and its Constitution
showed that the saving of slavery was the common purpose
of all the Southern States. Slavery was made the cornerstone of the new government. The result was what any
man ought to have expected: it was not reasonable to suppose the North would allow a disruption of the Federal
Union without war. The whole matter was referred to that
tribunal. It was decided against us. Shall we try the issue
again? Who is so mad as to even dream we could be more
successful than we have been already? We first failed at
the ballot-box, and now we have failed on the battle-field.
Nothing remains for us but to come forward and meet
the new issue.  We  must put it in the Constitution that
slavery is dead, and that we will never attempt to revive it.
Unless we do that, we shall have no Legislature. I don't
presume to speak by authonrity, - I only take cognizance of
the fact that the case has been tried in the last possible tribunal, and has been decided against us, and I see that we
must now submit, whether it be easy or painful for us to do
so. Shall we obstinately, persistently, and stubbornly refuse
to acquiesce? Is that the part of wisdom? I don't know
how far the conqueror may go with his victory.  There have
been cases in which whole peoples were swept from the
face of the earth: is that what we covet?  The war has
made the North victor: is it remarkable that the victors
should fix the terms of our restoration to political rights?
They have done no more than we expected. We said in all
our speeches at the beginning that slavery was in danger;
that if the dominant party succeeded in their efforts, slavery
would be destroyed. They succeeded at the ballot-box, and
we then made the issue on the battle-field. We were defeated there as we had been elsewhere, and the institution
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THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
of slavery is hopelessly destroyed.   Now  the conqueror
makes his terms, -abolish slavery by your own enactment,
declare that it shall never be re-established, treat your freed
people well, popularize your Constitution. Are these terms
hard?  Might they not have been much harder?  Are they
not, on the whole, very liberal? We are to retain nearly
all our civil rights and most of our property other than
slaves: might we not have fared much worse? It may
be hard in our judgment to concede these terms; but what
is it in their judgment? If we fail to do our duty according
to their judgment, what will be the consequence? Do we
covet military rule as the chief good? There have been
states in which military governors made it their duty, if not
their pleasure, to break the spirit of the people: are we
anxious for such authority over us? If we reject the boon
now offered us,- and I tell you it is a boon for a subjugated
people to be allowed the restoration of most of their personal
and political rights,- if we reject this, what then?  Let
gentlemen consider. I refer you to the speech of the Honorable Thaddeus Stevens, recently made. I know him as a man
of great ability, and as a leader among the radicals. He proposes to confiscate the property of seventy thousand leading
men in the South to pay the national war debt; and if the
radicals were in power, I don't doubt but that some such
policy would prevail.  We seem to forget where we stand;
we forget that we made the war and have been beaten; we
forget that our conquerors have the right to dictate terms to
us. And I tell you, it is to the good favor of Andrew Johnson that our terms are no worse,- nay, are so liberal.  He
is the dike between us and the waves of Northern fanaticism.
Let us be wise men. Let us strengthen his hands by graceful and ready acquiescence in the results of the war. So
shall we strengthen ourselves, and soon bring again to our
loved State the blessings of peace and civil rule.
Mr. Dunovant, of Edgefield District, denied that the war
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THiE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
was on the question of slavery. It was waged in the interests of State rights.  We were whipped, and the issue on
that question is forever settled. But I deny the right of any
one to dictate to us in respect to matters not in issue in the
war. I deny that slavery is abolished. The relation of
master and slave is disrupted, but that relation returns as
soon as you restore the civil authority. I will not admit
that we are rightfully under military rule; the President
has no warrant in the Constitution for keeping a standing
army among us, and I will not submit my will to him in this
matter.  I don't mean to be understood as opposing the abolition of slavery, but I think it is the business of the Legislature and not of this Convention.
Mir. MIcGowan, of Abbeville District, said one of the
chief things for which the Convention was called was to declare the abolition of slavery. He asserted as a historical
fact, that the war was forced upon the South, but did not
care to argue the point now.  The war left us in the dust,
it put us at the mercy of the North. The conqueror had
the right to prescribe the conditions of our restoration to
civil and political rights. These conditions I accept in all
fidelity, in all good faith, in all sincerity, with one condition
in return,- that we are hereafter to be left political masters
in the State. We must be left free to legislate for all the
people here, white or black, otherwise I would accept martyrdom before I would acquiesce in the demand made upon
us respecting slavery.
The discussion on the general subject rested here, and
the Blair substitute was  tabled with only two or three
dissenting voices.
A two hours' wrangle then ensued as to the phraseology
which should be adopted to gain the desired end. The
various propositions on which votes were taken during this
debate were the following:  From the Committee on Ordinances, SIr. T. N. Dawkins,
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THE SLAVERY' QUESTION.
of Union District, chairman: "Slavery having been actually destroyed by the military force of the United States, it
is hereby declared that slavery no longer exists in the State
of South Carolina, and that all persons heretofore held as
slaves are free; and it is further declared and ordained that
slavery shall not again be established in this State, but involuntary servitude may be adjudged by the General Assembly as a punishment for crime." The vote in Convention on
this form of words - it being the aforementioned order of
the day- was 46 Yeas to 61 Nays.
From the Committee on General Amendments to the
Constitution, Mr. C. M. Dudley, of Marlboro District, chairman:  "Slavery having ceased to exist in this State, it
shall not hereafter be re-established or permitted." The
vote of the Convention on accepting this phraseology was
35 Yeas to 72 Nays.
Substitute proposed by John A. Inglis, of Chesterfield
District: " Slavery is hereafter and forever prohibited in
this State." On the question of adopting this form, the vote
was 25 Yeas to 80 Nays.
Substitute proposed by Rev. Dr. James P. Boyce, of
Greenville District: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall ever be re-established
in this State." This was also rejected by a vote of 45 Yeas
to 58 Nays.
It will be judged from this record of votes that the Convention was determined that it should appear in the Constitution that slavery was not abolished by the voluntary action
of the State.
Judge Lesesne, of Charleston, would not stultify the State
of South Carolina by leaving it possible for any one to suppose that, after four years of such devastating war as we
have known, she did this thing of her own accord.
SIr. Dudley could see no necessity for attempting to say
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THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
through what agency slavery had been lost.  He thought
there was no occasion to use language that might be offensive. Moreover, it was possible that the condition of slavery might be re-established as a punishment for crime; and
he would not leave the purpose of the Convention with
regard to this matter in any doubt.
Judge Frost thought it ought to be understood by this
time that South Carolina was not omnipotent; and that
there were some things she could not do, - one of these
being to re-establish slavery.
Colonel Rion said he did all he could for the South while
the war lasted, and was now thoroughly whipped; yet he
was not afraid to declare the historical fact that slavery had
been destroyed by the Federal government.
Mr. Melton declared that he would oppose all amendments that claimed to recite the historical fact, for the Constitution is not intended as a text-book on history.
Chancellor Inglis would also vote against such amendments, because a Constitution should simply enunciate general principles: history was n't at all likely to lose or forget
the facts.
General McGowan asked if there were ten men in the
Convention who would favor the abolition of slavery as an
independent proposition aside from the events of the last
four years.
Mr. Dudley responded that there was need to remind the
Convention that they were suppliants for mercy, though he
believed that proper self-respect, aside from all other considerations, demanded that they should abstain from the use of
needless words.
General McGowan retorted that he would not vote for
the proposition at all, unless it recited the truth and the
whole troth.
Rev. Dr. Boyce said it seemed to him that the Convention
should have respect for the dignity of the work it was doing
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THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
and the document it was making; the historical fact would
appear in a thousand other places.
The Convention was determined, however, to have the socalled "historical fact," and finally, by a vote of 59 to 43,
agreed upon the following language:  "The slaves in South Carolina having been emancipated by
the action of the United States authorities, neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall ever be re-established in this State."
The occasion- the abolition of slavery in South Carolina
- had lost its superficial interest, because of the senseless
wrangle over a form of words. The fine audience of the
early part of the day had wearied and gone away. Only
the delegates and a few spectators whom nothing could disgust into forgetfulness of the import of the work in hand
remained. The dull equinoctial afternoon was fading into
a dark and dreary evening.
Finally the vote on the main question- the passage
of this clause as Sect. 11 of Article IX. in the new  Constitution- was called. In all parts of the church men kept
tally of those who voted " Nay."  They were Messrs. A. P.
Aldrich and J. 1I. Whetstone, of Barnwell District; R. G.
M. Dunovant, of Edgefield District; T. J. Goodwyn, of St.
3iatthew's Parish; J. H. Morgan, of Orange District; Edward Porter, of Williamsburg District; H. S. Sheridan, of
St. Bartholomew's Parish; and L. F. Youmans, of St. Luke's
Parish. The vote stood 98 Yeas and 8 Nays.
So the fact was accomplished beyond all cavil, and so
South Carolina stepped into the ranks alongside Massachusetts,   joining hands with her to bear aloft the banner of
freedom, -bowing to the logic of events rather than that
of free speech,- convinced by cannon-balls rather than by
arguments; yet, under the circumstances, turning from the
things of slavery to the things of liberty with commendable
grace.
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THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
At the gateway of the church, as I came out, I met an old
negro woman,- neat, prim, deferential.   "Well, Auntie,"
said I, "the Convention has just said there shall be no more
slavery in South Carolina."  "iHow's dat ar?"  I repeated
the idea in more familiar terms.  "Is dat ar true, Massa?"
"True as the Bible, Auntie." "Wall now tank de Lord fur
dat ar. I's dun gone pray fur dat dese yer forty years. I's
hope he come in my time; but'pears like he idle by de way.
Now he come, and I's ready fur my ole man in de hebens.
Tank de Lord, tank de Lord! "
VIII.
THE BASIS OF REPRESENTATION.
COLUMBIA, September 21, 1865.
HAT  is the true basis of representation in a repub        lican form of government? This is the profound
question over which the Convention has to-day spent a session of about seven hours. Everybody expected a struggle
when this matter was reached, for the first day's resolutions
showed a very prevalent desire to at least discuss the subject in all its bearings. Yet that the negro could be brought
into that discussion seemed never to enter the minds of even
some of the oldest and ablest delegates; and his introduction
into the assembly this afternoon was followed by scenes both
ludicrous and humiliating.
The basis of representation in the Legislature of this State
has always been unusual, not to say complex. In the House
it was property and population, taxation and white inhabitants, - half the members being apportioned on the basis
of white population, and the other half on the value of all
property, slaves included. In the Senate it was geo,raphi
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THE NEGRO'S RELATION TO POLITICS.
cal area and territorial extent, modified by the parish system, under which the area occupied by the major part of the
slave population received not less than three times as great
a representation as the same area mainly occupied by white
population.
The committee to which the legislative article of the Constitution was referred reported in favor of retaining the old
basis of representation in the House, and of abolishing the
parish system of representation in the Senate.
The debate to-day was upon that section fixing the basis
of representation in the House; but such range was given
it that it embraced, as I have already indicated, the whole
question of the true basis of republican representation. The
adoption this morning, by a vote of 73 to 36, of a rule limiting each delegate to fifteen minutes in speaking, gave the
debate a fragmentary character, and doubtless killed half a
dozen lengthy speeches.
Mr. James L. Orr advocated this basis of representation,
- white population in the House, and white population and
taxation in the Senate,   and moved to so amend the article
under debate, fixing white population as the basis for the
House. The proposition was pretty closely debated on its
merits, and the scheme was rejected- by Yeas 24, Nays 83.
MIr. Cadwallader Jones, of York, wanted the basis of representation in the Senate to be property, and in the House
white population, and submitted a series of amendments to
carry out his view. This question was also debated on its
merits, with some reference to its advantages for the different sections of the State, and finally rejected- by Yeas 20,
Nays 85.
Mr. Robert Dozier, of Georgetown, proposed that the basis
for representation in the House should be property, and all
the inhabitants, white and black.
This proposition dragged the poor negro right in by the
ears. His appearance was either very alarming or very dis
69 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
tasteful, for the Rev. Dr. Boyce sprang to his feet, and, with
indignant haste, moved to lay the amendment on the table,
saying he believed every man was ready for instant action.
Much to his surprise, apparently, several of the oldest and
strongest delegates protested in warm terms against this gag
movement, and the Reverend Doctor was forced to withdraw
his motion. He renewed it three times during the afternoon,
but was obliged to three times more withdraw it; and the
discussion upon the right and expediency of admitting the
negro into the body politic as an element of representation
ran through five long hours. It was no proposition to allow
him to vote, or even to allow any one to vote in his name;
or for him; but simply a proposition to allow ten thousand
whites living in a district where there are twenty-five thousand negroes, to send as many representatives to the General
Assembly as are sent by twenty-five thousand whites living
in a district with only ten thousand negroes.
There was during the day a great deal of frothy talk,
through which it was found that the proposition stood upon
three principal legs, and had several side-supports.
Its effect in State affairs was the medium through which
a majority of the speakers saw it. The discovery was soon
made that it svould ultimately give the control of the House
to the low-country. Sectional feeling was, therefore, at once
enlisted for or against it; and some of the up-country members made furious speeches against it, while some of the
Charleston delegation endeavored to win votes by appealing
to the magnanimity of up-country friends who had broken
their power in the Senate by the overthrow of the parish
system.
The bearings of the amendment upon the question of Congressional representation were also of much interest to various gentlemen. Mr. Dozier himself appeared to be chiefly
concerned in this regard. He argued that as negroes are
an element in the Congressional representation, it would be
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THE NEGRO'S RELATION TO POLITICS.
inconsistent to exclude them from the body politic as represented in the State Legislature. On what ground can we
ask Congress, said he, to allow us four representatives now,
and probably seven, and at least six, after the next census,
when our present white population gives us but two, if we
deny the right of the negroes to be represented in our local
government? This argument, in other phraseology, was used
by a dozen or more delegates. On the other hand, it was
argued that there is no connection between the two matters;
that the apportionment of four representatives - two for
whites and two for three fifths of the negroes -must stand
till after the next census; and that then the whole population, black andl white, must be counted in assigning the
representation, unless Congress meantime amends the Constitution, which it is not at all probable can be done.
The just claim of the negro to representation was advocated by a few members, including three or four of the ablest
delegates in the Convention. It was argued that he had
heretofore been represented in both houses,- directly as
property in the lower house, and indirectly through the
parish system in the upper house; and that it would be
unjust to now cut him off from all representation. " It will
be outlawry to do so," said Chancellor Inglis. On the other
hand, it was held that if the negro be admitted into the
body politic at all, he must be given a vote.  "This is but
the entering wedge of negro suffrage," said Colonel Rion,
"and I oppose it as such."  "I am sure the mover does not
mean it as such, and I am also sure none of those who support it mean it as such," said Mr. Thomson, of Abbeville;
"but I am convinced it is but the stepping-stone to negro suffrage." "You cannot, in my judgment, pass this amendment,"
said llr. Orr, "till you are prepared to follow it with one giving the negro the elective franchise, and I shall vote against
it on that ground."  "Adopt this amendment," said General
McGowan, "and you pass the political power of the State
71 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
over into the hands of the negro." "The measure of our own
necessities should be the measure of our recognition of the negro as an element in the body politic," echoed Mlr. Thomson.
"This is a white man's government," re-echoed Dr. Boyce.
Those to whom the Convention is accustomed to look for
leadership were about equally divided on the question, and
the discussion indicated that delegates were inclining to favor
the proposition more and more with each hour's delay of the
final vote. That was at length reached, and the amendment,
much to the surprise of Rev. Dr. Boyce, failed by only seven
majority; the votes standing - Yeas 52, Nays 59.
This was considered as settling the dispute; and, without
amendment, the section was agreed to as it came from the
committee.
The end had not, however, been reached. The Convention took a recess till this evening, during which the discussion among the eighty or ninety delegates at the hotel was
kept up with even more intensity than on the floor of the
church. Several were not satisfied with the vote they had
given, and it was determined to return to the section. Accordingly, as soon as the Convention came together after the
recess, a motion was made to recur thereto, which was carried- by Yeas 52, Nays 48.
ir. Aldrich, chief of the fire-eaters, moved an amendment
providing, in effect, that three fifths of the negroes shall be
counted, with the whites, in fixing the population-representation of the lower house, the property-representation being
also retained.
This proposition was debated two hours, and many of the
younger and third-rate members committed themselves to it
as a compromise between no-negro representation and fullnegro representation. The older heads then took the floor,
and made a dead set against it on the ground that the principle of negro representation is either right or wrong,- if
wrong, then this amendment should not be adopted even to
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THE NEGRO'S RELATION TO POLITICS.
benefit the low country, where the negro element will ulti mately reside; and if right, then no compromise was admis sible.  Wherefore Mr. Aldrich was constrained to withdraw
his amendment, to disembarrass the Convention.
Mr. Norwood, of Darlington, then moved a reconsidera tion of the vote by which Mr. Dozier's amendment had been
rejected at the morning session. HIe said he was opposed
to negro suffrage, but neither he nor his people were afraid
of a discussion of the subject.
Judge Edward Frost, of Charleston, an aged gentleman
of high standing, got the floor, and supported the motion to
reconsider, making the only creditable speech of the whole
debate. He said the chief error of the South had been that
she was not favorably disposed toward discussion of questions affecting the welfare and relations of the negro; and
he was very sorry to see such undue sensitiveness upon the
subject in this debate. The events of the last four or five
years have settled a great many things, and one of the things
thus settled is that South Carolina is not omnipotent. It is
effectually determined that we cannot have our own way in
everything. We assumed that we knew all there was to
know about the negro; and that where the world differed
from us in opinion, it was wrong. Events would seem to
indicate that we were wrong in at least some very important particulars. The world insisted that the negro is a
man, and we have even been brought to that acknowledgment. The world now demands that we fix the political
status of the negro; and we must consider the question,
whether it does or does not please us so to do. The old relation of master and slave is abolished. What new relation
shall be given to the negro? We cannot ignore him. We
cannot give him suffrage,- he is not fit to exercise it; but
if the community in which he lives has a representation on
his account, he will be in one sense represented.  Gentlemen talk about his ignorance, and plead that as a bar to his
4
73 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
admission into the body politic in any form.  He is ignorant; I grant you that; but how came he so?  Did he
make himself ignorant?  Did he ever have a chance to
choose his station in life? Was it not an act of insubordination for him to ask instruction?  We may as well admit
it first as last, - slavery made him what he is. Ignorance
is the natural and inevitable result of our former system of
labor. Let us do the negro justice: he is mainly what we
of the ruling class made him. In one sense, we still stand
in the relation of master to him, as the educated and intelligent are always the masters of the ignorant and feebleminded. It is our duty to consider his condition and help
him to become a better man.  Take away his ign6rance,
and you take away some of the burdens and some of the
dangers of society. If no higher considerations will move
us, let us consult our own material interests, and give him a
fair chance. Treat him as a free man, as an element of
prosperity in the State, and you soon make him such an element.   Ve cannot any more maintain the opinion of South
Carolina against the world. The negro has civil rights, as
we all have; political rights he will be slow to ask for, I
think, if we treat him fairly. His natural temperament is
such that he shuns Responsibility. Fully and freely concede his rights as a man, and he will be willing you should
make his laws. I have not known him to ask for suffrage
except when influenced by bad or designing men; but it is
the part of wisdom for us to open our eyes and see where
we stand. We must concede that the negro is a free man,
having civil rights, having property rights, having the right
to be represented in the body politic, and unquestionably
destined at no very distant day to have political rights."
"Why, he's a Black Republican! " exclaimeda man who
sat in the seat with me at the church, while Judge Frost
spoke.  "Well, he's the only one who has spoken," said I,
in reply.  "Yes, and d-n him, he's the only one here, I
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UP-COUNTRY AND LOW-COUNTRY.
reckon," continued my seat-mate.  "You are sitting next to
one!" I answered, with some asperity of tone, I'm afraid.
"You?"   "Yes."  I had the whole seat to myself soon
after the close of the conversation.
The motion to reconsider was carried by a vote of 55 to
51; but, a little later, Chancellor Inglis rose and said, that
reflection had convinced him it would not be wise at this
time to admit the negro as an element in any form into
the body politic, and he therefore moved to lay the pending
amendment- originally offered by MAr. Dozier- upon the
table. The nobodies followed the Chancellor's lead, and
the amendment went to the table by 75 to 24.
Therefore the basis of representation in the lower house
of the General Assembly stands as it always has since the
original Constitution was adopted, - white population and
taxation.
I was not sorry to see the Dozier proposition finally killed.
So far as granting any right to the negro, it was a sham and
a cheat. In the mouths of one or two men it meant goodwill to him; but it would have proved worse than the apples of Sodom had it been ingrafted into the Constitution.
IX.
THE GREAT CONTEST BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER
SECTIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
COLUMBIA, September 23, 1865.
THERE  has long been strife between the two sections
of the State locally known as the "up-country" and
the "low-country."  Just how it originated, and by what
jealousies it has been fed, probably no one could satisfactorily explain to an outsider. A dozen gentlemen have
volunteered to elucidate the whole matter for me, and so
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THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
long as I listened only to one side I thought I understood it;
but, having heard both parties, I am convinced that no one
really comprehends it. That there is ill-blood is patent
enough.  "I hate the saints of New England in reference
to national affairs, and I hate the saints of the low-country
in State affairs," said one of the up-country men to me yesterday.  "The low-country has overridden us long enough,"
said one of the delegates, "and now we've drawn the sword,
thrown away the scabbard, and are going to have a settlement." The hostility of the one section to the other five
years ago was scarcely less than the State hostility to the
general government; and the up-country now charges the
low-country with having brought on the war.  "Disunion
was born in the parishes," is the public remark of one delegate. 
The opening day of the session of this Convention found
the political power of the State where it always had been,in the low-country. The second day's session made it apparent to everybody that the up-country had marshalled its
forces for a struggle, and meant to depose the king and take
the reins of government into its own hands. The end of
this, the tenth day's session, sees this purpose accomplished,
-sees the low-country at the feet of the strong and innovating up-country. I
To show the successive phases of themconflict in the Convention whereby this result was gained is the purpose of
this letter.
The origin of the parish system of representation in the
upper house of the General Assembly dates with the formation of the original Constitution. Theoretically the senatorial representation was one from each district. Practically
this was the case only in the upper and back portions of the
State.  The sea-coast districts were divided into parishes,
and each parish was entitled to a senator, even if it contained no more than one hundred voters. Therefore, as
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UP-COUNTRY AND LOW-COUNTRY.
some of the districts were divided into several parishes, a
few districts on the coast,- Charleston, Colleton, and Beaufort, for instance,- if they did not have an actual majority
in the Senate, certainly were strong enough to control the
vote of that body; and that they did so control it, and generally for their own benefit, is beyond question.  Forty or fifty
years ago, when nearly all the wealth and population were
in the sea-coast districts, this parish system constituted a
check on the tendencies of the up-country, which, if not
founded in any right, at least did not operate to any serious
disadvantage. For the last twenty years or more, however,
it has been an oppressive burden on the State, of which it
seemed utterly impossible to get rid; for it could not be
reached except through an amendment to the Constitution,
and a convention for that purpose could only be called by
the Legislature; and legislatures so virtuous that they readily
vote themselves and their constituents out of power are not
numerous - in South Carolina at least. A convention, therefore, called by other authority than the Legislature, and without restriction as to the questions upon which it should act,
was to the up-country partial compensation for the overthrow
of the Confederacy.  The issue of the elections there, if issue
it can be called when everybody favored it, was "death to
the,parishes."
The first onset in behalf of the up-country was made by
the Provisional Governor, who says in his message: "The
parish representation in the Senate is unequal and unjust,
contrary to all republican principles; for twenty or thirty
voters in'one of the parishes, whose population and taxation
combined entitle it to only one member of the House of Representatives, have the same representation in the Senate
that three thousand voters have in Edgefield District, whose
population and taxation entitle it to six members in the
House."
The only hope for the parishes was that the Convention
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would limit itself to a narrow range of action. The lowcountry was in favor of doing as little work as possible;
the up-country was in favor of doing as much as possible.
On the first day of the session one of the low-country delegates offered a resolution calculated to define and limit the
province of the Convention. It was unceremoniously sent
to the table.
The quarrel between the two sections next came to the
surface on the question of appointing the standing committees. Few committees meant narrow range of work and a
speedy adjournment  and of course that view was supported
by the sea-coast members. Many committees meant a thorough revision of the Constitution, and that was what the upcouIntiy members wanted. The latter carried the day, after
a good deal of skirmishing, getting eight committees.
On the second day, Judge Lesesne introduced a resolution
reciting that the action of the Convention should be restricted
to those measures which are necessary for the reinstatement
of the State in the Union, and the restoration to her of a
civil government. This may be called the first movement
of Charleston; but it amounted to nothing, for the resolution
was instantly tabled.
On the third day, that city made a reconnoissance in force,
under the lead of'John Conner, late a general in the Confederate service, whose chief of staff on the occasion was Judge
Frost, also of the delegation from that city. General Conner's force consisted of the troops used on the previous day
by his colleague Judge Lesesne; but it was marshalled in
such a manner as to present a much more imposing front,
and was handled with consummate skill. Two hours' spicy
debate served, however, to send his resolution to the table; and he then retired and left the field to the up-country
enemy.
On the fourth day, the three low-country members of the
Committee on the Executive Department made a report,
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UP-COUNTRY AND LOW-COUNTRY.
stating, "We are of the opinion that the Convention, not
having been called according to the forms of the Constitution
of the State, can only exercise such powers as are absolutely
necessary to restore the State to the Union with a Constitution republican in its character; and that any fundamental
change in the said Constitution is not within the exercise
of such powers."  This was signed by Messrs. Aldrich of
Barnwell District, and Conner and Simonton of Charleston;
but these names were not enough to secure the acquiescence
of the Convention in the opinion, and the report also went
to the table.
On the fifth day, the St. Helena Parish election case came
up. The applicant for a seat was a young man originally
from Philadelphia, but resident about three years on the
island, and to all intents and purposes a citizen of the State.
His constituents are, like himself, mostly new-comers, though
all legal voters. There was no pretence of fraud, or that
the election did not fairly represent the will of the people
of the parish. The term of office of the managers of election appointed by the Legislature in 1860 - 61 had expired,
and there were neither managers nor legislative delegation
to appoint new ones. Therefore the people did the best
thing they could in the emergency,- held a mass-meeting,
and chose their managers. The technical question involved
in the case was, whether the certificate of managers thus
appointed could be received.   The special committee of
three to which the matter was referred, and of which Mr.
Perry, the Governor's son and private secretary, was chairman, decided that it could, and reported in favor of the admission of the delegate. The debate was sharp and spirited.
The informality of the election and certificate were admitted
on all hands. The committee and most of their supporters
argued that, as the will of the people had been fairly expressed, the informality could be overlooked. Mr. Orr would
admit the delegate as an earnest of the good faith and good
.79
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THE SOUTH SINCE THlE WAR.
disposition of the people of the State in their relation to the
Union. Judge Thomson, of Abbeville District, would admit
him as an earnest of the welcome he stood ready to extend
to all Northern men who are willing to cast their fortune
with South Carolina in this hour when she so much needs
help. On the other hand, the chief argument of the opposition rested on the facts that the delegate is a Northerner,
that the owners of the island have been driven from their
homes, and that the constituency now there is from the
North.   The report of the committee was sustained, and
the delegate was admitted by a vote of 56 to 53; and the
action of the Convention in this regard was generally con
sidered as another repulse to the low-country.
On the seventh day, the parish system was brought out
for trial, condemnation, and execution; and the work was
so thoroughly accomplished, that hardly enough of its friends
were found to give the mourners a respectable appearance.
The question came up indirectly, on a proposition to give
the city of Charleston two senators instead of one, as recommended by the Legislative Committee. The debate was
long and earnest, and called out the ablest men of the Convention.   The merits and demerits of the parish system
were discussed in all their length and breadth, and the
amendment was finally adopted by a vote of 78 to 30.
In this vote was the grand defeat of the low-country.  It
swept away the system which made South Carolina the
leader in the Rebellion, and in a moment transferred the
political power of the State from the conservative hands of
the low-country to the progressive hands of the up-country.
This fact is of grave importance. The parishes governed
the State in the one sole interest of slavery; and though the
up-country will not govern it just yet in the interest of freedom, the proportion of negroes in the low-country districts
is very much larger than in the up-country districts. The
inhabitants of the low-country are of direct foreign descent,
80
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UP-COUNTRY AND LOW-COUNTRY.
with monarchical and aristocratic tendencies; those of the
up-country camne originally from the North, and have repub   lican and democratic tendencies.
The people of the State are wretchedly poor; but on the
evening of the day in which this great victory was gained, I
heard -and for the first time since the Convention met  heard, in the rooms of the leading up-country delegates, a
lively and long-continued fire of champagne corks. Peace
to the ashes of the parish system!
George D. Tilman, a man of immense frame and very
considerable abilities, genial and off-hand, who has lived in
South America and California, and now hails from Edgefield
District, who has served six years in the State Legislature
for honor, and two years in the State Penitentiary for man  slaughter, who quotes philosophy from De Tocqueville, and
historical maxims from Gibbon, - this man, who makes
friends with everybody, and at whom the "gentlemen," so
called, of the low-country, affect to sneer, is a genuine Red
Republican in his disregard of what are called "ancient
rights and privileges."  Sitting with great blue-gray eyes
that seem always half asleep, he is always alert and wide awake; slouching along with a rolling gait, he is careful
and earnest; utterly wanting in the power of oratory or
rhetoric, he has made more points than any other member
of tJe Convention, and has carried all of them but one, and
that of minor importance.  He is the leader of the advance
line of the up-country delegates, not so much by any election as by the inherent force of necessity; for he fights independently, and leaves them no choice but to follow. He
is fairly entitled to the honors of the day in the open-field
fight against the Conner resolution, and has been from the
first the restless and untiring and self-possessed and goodhumored enemy of the parish system, or, to use his own
phrase, "the Chinese conservatism of Charleston."  His object has been, and still is, to cripple the power of the low                4.                               r
81 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WIAR.
country in every possible way. He will take no bond of
fate, but builds his walls of offence and defence in the Constitution itself.
On the eighth day, the low-country attempted by strategy
to recover what it had lost in a shoulder-to-shoulder contest.
Power through control of the Senate had been taken away,
but power might be regained through control of'the House.
Therefore the sea-coast delegates generally supported the
scheme for including three fifths of the blacks as an element
of population in establishing the basis of representation. I
have already reported the action on that question, —how it
was debated through five long hours, lost by 52 to 59, reconsidered by 55 to 51, and finally tabled by 75 to 24. There
were various times during the day when it seemed as if the
low-country would win the battle; but the final vote showed
its strength to be relatively about the same as in the struggle
on the parish representation.   This was its last effort, - the
sceptre has departed from Judah.
On the tenth day, Tilman smote the routed enemy once
more; he called it "reaping the just fruits of victory."  His
blow came in the form of an amendment to the Constitution,
providing that, after 1869, no district in the State shall have
more than twelve representatives. This was aimed at the
city of Charleston, which now has twenty. The low-coun try was exhausted, and the amendment was adopted after a
brief debate by 61 to 43.
This record closes with to-night. I see no chance for
again striking the low-country.  The end of the Convention
is near. The up-country has won in every point it made.
Hereafter it will be responsible for the legislation of the
State. The first Legislature will be elected under the old
system. Thenceforward the new Constitution will govern;
under it South Carolina cannot be the haughty and exclu sive creature she was in ante-Rebellion days.
82
I 
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS.
X.
MINOR WORK OF THE STATE CONVENTION.
CoL UMBIA, September 25, 1865.
THII Convention has about finished its labors.  I have
reported its action in regard to all the more important
questions, and have now to speak of but three subjects,
first, the miscellaneous business; second, the attitude of the
Convention toward the general government; third, its talk
and action in respect to the freedmen.
And, first, of the miscellaneous business, including there under the chief unmentioned amendments to the Constitu tion.
The Convention can scarcely be said to have amended the
old Constitution; it has, the rather, been making a new one.
The more important changes not already given, as well as
the action on certain rejected propositions, are indicated as
follows: -
The election of Presidential electors is taken from the
Legislature and given to the people. This change created
considerable debate, some twenty-five or thirty of the older
delegates being seriously opposed thereto.
The election of Governor is taken from the Legislature and
given to the people; the term of office is changed from two
years to four years; he is declared ineligible for two consecutive terms; and the fifteen hundred pounds sterling freehold qualification is abolished. The questions involved in
the action on this section have been much canvassed by the
people, and there is a considerable body in the Convention
strongly opposed to the change. It was, however, so well
understood that this was one of the particulars in which the
President required that a more republican form should be
given the Constitution, that the section passed without a
division.
83 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The Lieutenant-Governor, elected like the Governor, and
having the same qualifications and term of office, is made
ex offcio President of the Senate.
A proposition to give the appointment of Secretary of
State, and Treasurer and Comptroller-General, to the Governor, with the consent of the Senate, led to a protracted and
somewhat excited debate, and was finally lost by 39 to 72.
Their election remains as heretofore, - with the Legislature.
The property qualification- a freehold of three hundred
pounds sterling for State senator; a freehold of five hundred
acres of land and ten negroes, or a real estate valued at one
hundred and fifty pounds sterling, for State representative;
and a freehold of fifty acres, or a town lot, for a voter -has
been abolished. The first-mentioned change prevailed by a
vote of 59 to 47; the others were made without division.
The effort to provide that no man should vote unless he
could read the Constitution was, of course, a failure.  "It
would disfranchise at least a quarter of the people," said
one cautious delegate.  " More than that," said another.  "I
have known a grand jury within the last ten years of which
only one man could write his name," echoed a third. The
proposition came from Delegate Thompson, of St. Helena
Parish, and found the table within five minutes of its presentation.
The veto power is given to the Governor, but a majority
of the whole representation in each house may pass any
bill over his veto.
A District Court is created to take jurisdiction of all civil
cases wherein one or both the parties are persons of color,
and of all criminal eases wherein the accused is a person of
color. The judge of this court is elective by the Legislature,
holds his office for four years, and is eligible to a re-election.
A resolution was passed, expressing the opinion that the
Legislature ought, at its next session, to adopt the Constitutional amendment submitted by Congress at its last session.
There was no debate upon the matter.
84
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THE CONVENTION AND THE GOVERNMENT.
The General Assembly is forever prohibited by ordinance
from passing " any law imposing civil disabilities, forfeiture
of property or of other rights, or punishment of any kind,
on any citizen or resident of the State, or person owning
property herein, for the relation of such citizen, resident, or
person to, or his or her conduct in reference to, the late secession of this State from the Federal Union or the war
which grew out of the same, or for any participation, aid,
counsel, or assistance therein."
The new Congressional districts are established by counties, and are as follows:
First District, - Lancaster, Chesterfield, Marlboro, Darlington, Marion, Hiorry, Georgetown, Williamsburg, Sumter, Clarendon, and Kershaw.
Second District, -Charleston, Colleton, Beaufort, and Barnwell.
Third District, -Orangeburg, Edgefield, Abbeville, Lexington, Newburg, Richland, and Fairfield.
Fourth District, - Anderson, Pickens, Greenville, Lawrence,
Spartanburg, Union, York, and Chester.
And, second, with respect to the attitude of the Convention toward the general government.
The debate on the Aldrich resolution, on the Jeff Davis
pardon-memorial question, on the St. Helena election case,
on the slavery clause of the Constitution, and on the Congressional-representation ordinance, showed very clearly the
political standing of the delegates. They have no special
love for the Union, but war has taught them a hearty respect for the United States. They talk very little and very
mildly about State rights, but not one of them was able to
see that the secession ordinance should have been annulled
instead of repealed,- for does not a mere repeal amount to
a practical reaffirmation of the right to secede? However,
the question never will be of special consequence so far as
this State is concerned; for the whole Confederacy, late and
85 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
so-called, could not coerce her into again taking up arms
against the general government.
And, third, of the talk and action of the Convention in
respect to the freedmen.
The temper of the Convention toward the negro is very
far from being what the friends of humanity desire. The
delegates, generally speaking, are probably better disposed
toward him than the majority of their constituents, for I
suppose they represent the best intelligence of their respective districts; but even their views, as a body, are extremely narrow and supremely selfish, not to add of the
most fancifully fearful character.
Governor Perry, of whom I have heretofore spoken as
the leading man in the Convention, began the hue and cry
against the poor African in the message delivered on the
second day of the session. True, he says slavery is gone,"dead forever" is his tautological phrase; but he rails
against the negro soldiers, actually has the face to quote the
Dred Scott decision against the negro's right to citizenship,
and indorses the dreary and absurd falsehood that "this is
a white man's government, intended for white men." I
submit that this sort of talk, admissible from a sixth-rate
ward politician, is entirely out of character for even a Provisional Governor, can do no possible good to any living
man, and is productive of nothing but increased ill-feeling
between the two classes of people who now occupy the
State, and must continue to occupy it during this generation
at least.
There has been a great deal of this white-man's-government talk, in face of the fact that the negroes in the State
number one third more than the whites, and the fact that
they have almost to a man desired the success of the Union
in the war, and the further fact that the whites of some sec tions are asking that soldiers may be kept in the State to
protect them. Such men as James L. Orr, Thomas Thom
86
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THE CONVENTION AND THE FREEDMEN.
son, General Sam McGowan, Rev. Dr. Boyce, Dr. Robert
Dozier, George D. Tilman, to say nothing of a dozen men
of less note, have allowed themselves indulgence in passion ate declamations by way of echo to the message.
Obnoxious and short-sighted as the Convention is in this
regard, - for the men who were going to fight the Yankees
from street to street of all their cities and chief towns, and
finally die in the last ditch, seem to have learned little wis dom of langunage, - there is something still worse. "The
negro is an animal whose character the North seems utterly
unable to comprehend," said one of the sea-coast delegates.
In that phrase lies the key of the Convention's sentiment
and judgment, -the negro is an animal; a higher sort of
animal, to be sure, than the dog or the horse, but, after all,
an animal. Even so taciturn a man as Mr. Chancellor Inglis felt it necessary to rise and gravely argue that the negro
is a human being, has the right of life and protection by the
laws, and must receive attention even from men who make
Constitutions. Ask any given delegate if the negro is a
human being, and you of course insult his intelligence; but,
for all that, the Convention treats him like an animal whose
presence is endured, but is no way desirable. Individual
men there are who sincerely sympathize with him in his
anomalous and trying condition,- men who contemplate
the labor question with as much grave anxiety as any man
in the North; but these are the exception, not the rule, and
they only serve to make more hideous the general average
sentiment and political judgment.
The general debate in respect to the abolition of slavery,
and the leading points of the debate in respect to the proper
and expedient basis of representation in the General Assembly, have been given; and there remains only to report
what was said and done regarding negro evidence and negro
suffrage.
Mr. Mayor Macbeth, of Charleston, introduced the ordi
87 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
nance giving the negro the right to testify.  "I consider it
proper," said he, "that the Convention should act on this
subject. It is not a question as to our opinion on the propriety of allowing him to thus give evidence, but a question
of retaining military courts or permitting him to appear in
our civil courts." No word, you see, for the inherent right
of every man to be heard in his own defence, but simply
a cold question of policy.   Yet even this raised a storm.
Nothing more was asked than that it be sent to a committee
for their report; but this common courtesy was denied by a
sharp and decisive vote. The temper of the Convention
was unmistakable; but Mr. Orr rose and rebuked the delegates, saying a proposition to refer for inquiry was rarely
rejected, and to reject the present motion would be a very
grave matter. This brought the question again before the
house, when a bae majority allowed it to go to the Committee on the Judiciary Department, from which it finally came
with a recommendation that it be passed, in the following
form: -
"We, the people of the State of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention met, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby
declared and ordained, that hereafter colored persons shall be
permitted to testify in all the courts of this State, in all cases
where the rights of person or of property of persons of that class
are involved."
The report was received with a great deal of disfavor, and
action on it was from time to time postponed, without debate,
till to-day, when it was called up and ordered before the
freedmen's code commission, which the Governor has been
instructed to appoint, - only three delegates-Judge Edward
Frost of Charleston, Dr. A. P. Wylie of Chester, and J. G.
Thompson of Beaufort - being prepared to vote at once for
the ordinance.
"How long do you suppose the agitation of the question of negro suffrage can be staved off in the State?"
88
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NEGRO SUFFRAGE.
said I to an up-country delegate of high standing. "Till
the taking of the next census, I hope," he answered.  "Do
you really believe it can be kept down five years?'  "Yes,
I think it will be," was his final reply. That the Convention would show any favor to the question I presume no one
really expected. Even South Carolina, with all her desolation, doesn't yet fully comprehend that there has been a
deluge. I did hope, however, that I should find half a dozen
men at least in favor of giving suffrage to some negroes, as
many more in favor of abolishing thk barbaric color qualification, and still as many more ready to admit that suffrage
would be the right of the negro as soon as he is able to use
it understandingly. Vain hope! If there are six men who
so much as admit that it will probably be right or politic to
give suffrage to any negro of their State within ten years,
four of them must be among the thirty or thirty-five whose
views I have not personally learned.
Perhaps a score of delegates have taken occasion to express themselves in very strong terms as now and forever
opposed to negro suffrage in any form, no matter what the
limitations.  Mr. Dawkins said the freed people were clearly
unfit to vote now, and he did n't think the Convention was
called upon to express any opinion as to what they might
be in the future. Mr. Orr would vote against giving them
the ballot, but presumed the fanatics of the North would
not be content till they had secured it for them. Mr. Dozier would accept negro suffrage when the moral and intellectual character of the negro has been so elevated that
he is fit to take part in government. Mr. Inglis said negroes were no more qualified to vote now than children.
Judge Frost said the negro was to be treated as a human
being who had civil rights, and unquestionably would, at
no very distant day, have political rights. Mr. Melton, of
Chesterfield, said the idea that South Carolina might, within
five years, admit negro suffrage, was not more startling than
89 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the idea would have been, in 1860, that she would within five
years declare slavery abolished. With these six exceptions,
I believe no expression has been made indicating any degree
of tolerance for the bare idea of negro suffrage.
POSTSCRIPT.
The Convention adjourned sine die on the evening of
September 27th, having held a session of thirteen days. A
proposition to adjourn subject to the call of the President
of.the Convention was lost by a vote of 24 to 57.
Much has been said about the so-called Hammond resolutions, and I find an impression prevailing in some quarters
that the Convention repudiated the State-rights doctrine.
On the contrary, however, it was very careful to do nothing
of the sort, as a brief statement will show.
On the fourth day of the session Mr. Paul H. Hammond,
a son of the late United States Senator of that name, introduced a series of resolutions "declaratory of a national policy." They were referred to the Committee on Ordinances
and Resolutions, which, on the seventh day of the session,
reported them back in the following form:  "Inasmuch as a fundamental difference of opinion in reference
to the character, powers, and policy of the government of the
United States and of the State governments, existed in the Convention which framed the Constitution, and, after more than three
quarters of a century of political contest, resulted in a bloody and
exhausting war; and, whereas, when a people draw the sword,
appealing to the last and highest tribunal known to man, they
should abide by its decisions in good faith; and, whereas, it is
neither wise nor politic in the people of the South to continue
any longer a contest in which they have been twice defeated,
once by political majorities and once by the sword: therefore,
we, the people of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, accept, as the results of the war, the principles embraced in the
following resolutions, and will sustain them fully and faithfully
as a national policy:
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STATE SOVEREIGNTY.
"Resolved, That the Union is the first and paramount consideration of the American people.
"Resolved, That it is the true policy of the American people
to confine the general government strictly within the limits ofthe Constitution, and to acknowledge the inalienable right of
each State to regulate its own affairs in its own way.
"Resolved, That it is an incontrovertible fact that slavery has
ceased to exist through the exercise of the military power of the
Federal government, and that any attempt by us to revive it
would be impolitic, unwise, and not only futile, but disastrous.
"Resolved, That the late war arose from an apprehension, on
the part of the weaker section, of oppression and tyranny in the
future, and was carried on under an honest conviction, coexistent
among statesmen in every part of the country, with the adoption
of the Constitution itself, that a State had the reserved right to
revoke the powers it had delegated to the general government,
whenever, in the judgment of such State, there might be danger
that those powers would be used to its disadvantage. The war,
therefore, not having been strictly in the nature of rebellion or
insurrection we most respectfully suggest to His Excellency the
President the justice and wisdom of not enforcing the pains and
penalties affixed to those crimes by the laws of the United States.
"Resolved, That we indorse the administration of President
Johnson, and will co-operate with him in the wise measures he
has inaugurated for securing the peace and prosperity of the
whole country."
These resolutions, with the accompanying introduction,
are substantially, so far as they go, the same as those introduced by Mr. Hammond, —the changes made by the committee being few and verbal and wholly unimportant.
It is a very curious and suggestive fact, however, that the
committee rejected the second of Mr. Hammond's series,
which was in these words:- -
"Resolved, That sovereignty, a unit absolute and indivisible,
which, in all nations, must exist somewhere, resides in the American people; and its authorized representative within the limits of
the organic law-i. e. the Constitution —is the Federal government."
91 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The resolutions as reported from the committee were
made the special order no less than four different times;
but, strangely enough, on each occasion something else was
found to be more pressing, and their consideration was never
reached.
On the last day of the session, however, the Convention
took up, and unanimously passed, the following resolution,
which was introduced by Colonel Henry G. Simonton of
Charleston:
"Resolved by the delegates of the people of South Carolina in
Convention assembled, That we indorse the administration of
President Johnson, that we cordially approve the mode of pacification proposed by him, and that we will co-operate with him in
the wise measures he has inaugurated for securing the peace and
prosperity of the whole Union."
XI.
SUMMARY OF FOUR WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS.
CHESTER, September 27, 1865.
HE attitude of the people toward the general govern     ment is, on the whole, pretty good.  I am  convinced
that even in South Carolina there was a large body of men
who never favored Rebellion. I do not make this assertion
except after much inquiry and conversation. State pride,
State pride, -that is what ruined South Carolina.  Men
went into Rebellion, not of original choice, but because the
State did. These men say now,- said in the Convention to
those who talked of conservatism in changes of the Constitution, -"O 0 yes, if you'd had a little more conservatism
five years ago, we should n't be where we are now."
It is already a question how the State got into Rebellion.
"Disunion was born in the parishes," said an up-country
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THE WHITES AND THE GOVERNMENT.
delegate. "The political leaders carried us out," said one
merchant to me.  "The Rebellion came from the people,"
urged a man who had been a colonel in the Rebel army. " We
went out to save slavery," argued Delegate Orr. "We went
out for State rights," responded Delegate Dunovant.  "The
woman tempted us, and we did eat," answered Delegate Summer. It is a good sign that the people are found thus differing.  "I begin to wonder, after all," said the mayor of one
of the back cities, "if there was any real occasion for us to
go to war." "You never'11l get us into another war till we
know exactly what it is about," remarked a Columbia merchant in my hearing.
There has been a great deal said about the existence of a
sullen spirit in the State. I have not discovered much of it.
The famous Aldrich resolution was an expression in that
direction; but in a body of one hundred and ten members.
it found but four supporters, even in a viva voce vote.
Aldrich afterward made a speech in the same vein as his
resolution, and the galleries applauded him heartily; but
when I saw it I could not help recalling that the same gallery had previously heartily applauded McGowan's indignant speech against the resolution. The applause of a crowd
of young loafers counts for very little, any way. I don't
believe there are many Aldrich men in the State. Daily intercourse for over three weeks with all sorts of people and
under very many different circumstances has failed to reveal
them to me, if there are. The people have a prejudice
against the Yankees, and they avow it without any hesitation.
They are somewhat disposed to boast of their martyrdom.
"The  State is nothing now but a county of the United
States," is a remark I have heard scores of times, as though
there were pride even in recalling other days. The pride is
perfectly harmless.  They exult in their war record.  "We
believed we were right," they say, "and we fought for our
belief with every possible energy."  Remembering that the
93
6 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
State is a part of our nationality, shall we not, in other fashion
though it be, also exult in the heroism of her people? They
are poor enough, but there is no humiliation in their poverty.  "Incurred as ours was, it is no blame and no disgrace, but rather a glory and a boast," passionately exclaimed
Chancellor Inglis one day when some one impliedly said the
State ought not to admit her poverty. However it may be
with other States, South Carolina is conquered, and has great
respect for the power of the North.   Love is something
which must grow as respect did. All these various sorts of
pride abound, but any widespread sullenness or obstinacy
in respect to the general government there is not, unless
my observation is wholly at fault.
Something has also been said about the existence of a
fawning, cringing spirit. On the steamer I met a fellow
from Charleston who had been to Washington with a pitiful
story, in order to get pay for property destroyed. One of
the up-country Convention delegates went before General
Ames, whose head-quarters are at Columbia, and indulged
in some tear-shedding while he told his story and asked for
favor. Old Governor Pickens, as I have before said, was
nervously sensitive that nothing should be said or done that
could possibly give offence to His Excellency the President,
or His Excellency the Provisional Governor. These are exceptions, however. The people at large have not that spirit.
Some persons like to show why the Rebel defeat occurred.
Delegate Youmans impliedly says Davis was obstinate in
keeping men in power whom the people would not trust;
an up-country merchant with whom I travelled thought the
negroes were not used as they ought to have been; a Charleston cotton-factor assured me the officials starved the army;
a Columbia lady was confident victory went with us because
we had the old banner, which the South might just as well
have claimed; while an Orangeburg miss of eighteen or
twenty said the Yankees had been deceitful, and were able
I
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THE WHITES AND THE GOVERNMENT.
O
to fight a great deal better than the South ever supposed
they could. These diversions of why and wherefore are
harmless enough; let persons indulge in them if they will.
The fact remains, that almost every man, woman, and child
will readily own that the South is whipped.  "We did the
best we could in war, and were beaten; now we are going
to do the best we can in peace," is the conclusion.
"Is there anything of defiance among the people?" some
one asks.  "Who is so mad as to talk of further war?" asks
Delegate Inglis.  "Who is crazy enough to dream of resistance by any power on this continent to the will of the United
States?" interrogates Delegate Orr.  "If the youngest of
you lives to my age even, you will not see another musket
shouldered in the South against the Union," observes venerable Delegate Huger, with the weight of his eighty years
bending him toward the grave.  "Whose voice could raise
a regiment, nay, a company, in the whole State for further
resistance?" exclaims Delegate  McGowan.    " The  conqueror has the right to make the terms, and we must submit," say dozens of men everywhere.
It is idle and foolish, more, it is false and cruel, to urge
or argue that there is danger of further armed resistance to
the authority of the government in South Carolina.   The
argument against the restoration of the State to political
fellowship must rest on other grounds. It can rest on other
bases without losing any of its strength, too.
I know there were a score of ex-Confederate officers in
the Conventioni  "Does n't that indicate a rebellious spirit?"
may be queried. For my part, I wish every office in the
State could be filled with ex-Confederate officers. It is the
universal testimony of every officer of our own troops with
whom I have conversed, from the commanding general down,
as well as of every Northern man two months resident in the
State, that the late Rebel soldiers are of better disposition
toward the government, toward Northerners, toward progrciion, than any other class of citizens.
95
0 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The delegates of the Convention have mostly united in
asking Colonel James L. Orr to allow himself to be voted
for as Governor. He replies that he does not desire the
office, but will accept it if elected. That he will be elected
I do not doubt. A few men are advising that Wade Hampton be also brought into the field. He has many warm personal friends, and is popular with the masses; but I think
the people will not elect him, even if he is a candidate. Mr.
Orr never was very heartily in the Rebellion. "We always
rather distrusted him," said a prominent ex-Rebel to me
yesterday. The merit of his election will not, however, lie
in his former relation to the war, but in his present views of
State and National policy. He is pre-eminently the leader
of the progressives, and is of far more liberal and sensible
views, I think, than Governor Perry.  When, four days ago,
one of the Convention delegates, who mourns for the olden
days, expressed his pride in the great men and the general
hospitality of the State, Mr. Orr retorted that she never had
anything else to be proud of; and then burst out into a passionate eulogy of the many-sided life of the North, and a
scathing criticism of the narrow, inert, centralizing policy
of South Carolina, which I shall not soon forget.  "I am
tired of South Carolina as she was," said he; "I covet for
her the material prosperity of New England. I would have
her acres teem with life and vigor and industry and intelligence, as do those of Massachusetts."
The white man and the negro do not understand each
other, and consequently do not work together so harmoniously as it is desirable that they should. It would seem
that, one party having work to do and the other needing
work, there would be such community of interest as leads to
unity of purpose and action; but the fact is, that each party
distrusts the other, and therefrom results bickering and antagonism.
That there are many kind-hearted planters -men who
96 
THE WHITES AND THE NEGROES.
made slavery in very truth a sort of patriarchal institution,
and who are now endeavoring in all sincerity and earnest ness to make the negro's situation not only tolerable, but
comfortable- is as true as it is that there are many negroes
who cling to the old places and the old customs, and are
doing their work just as faithfully and unselfishly as ever.
These men, on either side, are, I am convinced, the excep tions.
The fault unquestionably, it appears to me, lies with the
white man. He is of the ruling race, and might, I feel very
certain, have established a different order of things if he had
pleased to do so, and had exercised good common sense in
the beginning. That there are some planters who find the
free negroes honest and faithful is positive proof that there
might have been many more, and if many more, then without number.
Most of them began by assuming, however, that it was
right to keep the negro in slavery just as long as possible,
and by adding thereto the assumption that the free negro
would not work.  Military power has compelled the recognition of his freedom in every district, I believe, though in
some of them not till within the last six weeks; but this almost universal belief that he will not work is doing a good
deal to prove that he will not; and troubles which are dimly
foreshadowed will come from this cause alone, - the brutal
assumption that the negro cannot be controlled except by
fear of the lash.
There is among the plantation negroes a widely spread
idea that land is to be given them by the government, and
this idea is at the bottom of much idleness and discontent.
At Orangeburg and at Columbia, country negroes with whom
I conversed asked me, "When is de land goin' fur to be
dewided?" Some of them believe the land which they are
to have is on the coast; others believe the plantations on
which they have lived are to be divided among themselves.
5                                  G
97 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAr.
One of the Convention delegates told me that an old negro
man, who declined going away with some of the hands bound
for Charleston, gave as his reason for remaining, that "De
home-house might come to me, ye see, sah, in de dewision."
There is also a widely spread idea that the whites are to be
driven out of the lower section of the State, and that the
negroes are there to live by themselves. That so absurd
ideas as these could exist I would not believe till I found
them myself. This latter notion I even found in Charleston
among negroes who had just come in from the back country.
Other absurd notions well known to prevail are, that freedom
can only be found "down-country," i.e. in the neighborhood
of Charleston; that it is inseparable from the presence of
the army, etc.
Some of these ideas, it was, of course, natural the negro
should have, - they are born of his blind and passionate
longing for liberty, born of his weary waiting in the house
of bondage. Where the poor creature got the others, and
most dangerous, I'm sure I don't know. The whites charge
the demoralization to the negro soldiers.  However this
may be, it is painfully certain that, next to teaching the
whites that the negro is a free man and not an animal, the
hardest work before the North now is to teach the negro
what constitutes his freedom.
As I have already intimated, the negroes are drifting down
toward the coast in great numbers. In the night of travel
between Orangeburg and Columbia, we met scores of them
trudging along with their whole earthly possession in a bundle on the head. Walking in the bright moonlight seventy
or eighty rods ahead of the hack, I spoke with many. They
had but few words;" Goin' to Char'ston," was often their
only reply. Whether talkative or taciturn, there was a firm
foot and an unruffled voice for the coast.  "What are you
going to do there?" I asked,- only to get for my answer,
"Dun know." I never shall forget the scenes of that two
98 
THE WHITES AND TlHE NEGROES.
or three miles' walk between one and two o'clock in the
morning of that 11th of September. There had recently
been some robberies of travellers on that road, and guerillas
suggested themselves with every outline seen in the sheeny
distance. Yet it was only the exodus of the negroes, going
out ignorantly and mistakenly, yet seeking nothing less noble
and worthy than freedom.
Despite the fact that nearly everybody tells me the free
negro will not work, the experience of some of the better
class of planters convinces me that he will work, if he is
treated like a man. He is unquestionably sensitive about
his freedom, - it is the only thing he has that he can call
his own.
Some of the blacks are working along as heretofore, under
private arrangements with their former masters; but in most
cases there is a written contract between the employer and
the employed, -one copy in the hands of the planter and
the other at the Freedmen's Buireau office. I hear of very
few cases in which the compensation is in money; in nearly
all instances it is a part of the crop. The laborer's share
ranges from one tenth to one half; on some small farms,
where special privileges are given the negroes in the way
of clothing, use of land, use of team, use of time, the share
may not be over one sixth to one tenth of the regular crop;
in the lower part of the State, where most of the labor is
done by hand, and where there are no special privileges, the
share is from one third to one half; in the upper part of the
State, where horses or mules are more in use, the share
is from one fourth to one third. The contracts generally
expire at New Year's.
It is beyond question that but little work has been done
in the State this season. The free negro is the scapegoat
on which the whites lay the burden of this wrong, of course;
but it seems to me that the disturbed condition of the country in the early summer and through all the spring is extenuation enough.
99
I..... -.
.::  1.:. 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
It is, however, true that the lately freed negro has not
generally been made to comprehend that there are six laboring days in each week. The railroad companies complain that they can get but three or four days' work per week
from the blacks engaged in rebuilding the roads; and the
contract officers of the Freedmen's Bureau quite universally
concur in the statement that five days make a plantation
negro's week for work. Instances in which the contract
officers have been called on to go out into the country and
convince the negroes that work must be done on Saturday
as well as on other days are not at all rare.
The indifference which so many of the people feel and
express as to the fate of the negro is shocking and to
the last degree revolting to me. He is actually to many of
them nothing but a troublesome animal; not a human being,
with hopes and longings and feelings, but a mere animal,
valuable, but altogether unlovable.  "I would shoot one
just as soon as I would a dog," said a man to me yesterday
on the cars. And I saw one shot at in Columbia as if he
had been only a dog,- shot at from the door of a store, and
at midday!  "If I can only git shet of'em I don't care
what becomes of'em," said one of my two stage companions in the ride from Columbia to Winnsboro, while speaking of the seventy negroes on his plantation.   Of course
he means to "git shet of'em " as soon as possible.  There
are others who will follow his example.
There has been much talk to the effect that the planters
are, now that the main work of the season is over, turning
the negroes adrift. It will not be easy to do this on any
large scale, nor can I believe that many employers will attempt it. Indifference most heartless is one thing,- downright active cruelty is quite another. The one may prevail;
but, aside from all other considerations, fear of the military
will prevent the other. The facility with which the negro
can bring his late master before the provost-marshal is
something not wholly unpleasant to see.
".: ".;.  *
100
fI 
THE WHITES AND THE NEGROES.
The whole labor system of the State is in an utterly
demoralized condition.'How soon it can be thoroughly reorganized, and on just what basis that reorganization will
take place, are questions of no easy answering. The labor
question, and not reconstruction, is the main question among
intelligent thinking men of the State. Scarcely one in a
dozen of the best of them have any faith in the negro.
"The experiment of free negro labor is bound to be a failure; and you of the North may as well prepare for it first
as last," is substantially the language of hundreds. And
thereafter follow questions of,  "What shall then be done
with the negro?" and, "Where shall we then get our labor?"
Look at the figures for a few districts. In Sumter there
were, in 1860, of whites, 6,857, and of negroes, 17,012; in
Fairfield, 6,373 whites, and 15,736 negroes; in Colleton,
9,255 whites, and 32,661 negroes; in Beaufort, 6,714 whites,
and 33,339 negroes; and in Georgetown, 3,013 whites, and
18,292 negroes. Is it any wonder that the white population
of these districts is nervously sensitive about the negro? The
proportion of blacks is even greater now than these figures
indicate; for war has taken out the whites and brought in
the negroes to such an extent that one delegate told me
there were in his parish but twenty-two voters and over
two thousand negroes. What is to come of such a condition of affairs?
The question is not to be whistled down the wind with the
answer, "It will regulate itself"; for straiglhtway on its heels
follows this, How will it regulate itself? Suppose you give
suffrage to the negro in a State whose population now must
be about one third white and two thirds negro? It is no
question of punishment for those who have fought against
the government; over that fleeting and insignificant matter
is the great problem of the good of the two races, the advancemnent of humanity, and the lofty democratic right of
every man to a voice in choosing his rulers.
101 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XII.
THE GREAT MILITARY PRISON OF NORTH CAROLINA.
SALISBURY, September 29, 1865
ALISBURY, -of hateful notoriety, of sharp and painful
memory to a hundred thousand hearts! Salisbury, -
cursed of men dying of cold and starvation, cursed of men
driven mad by fiendish torture!  Salisbury,- one of the
horrible names an unclean and infamous usurpation carved
on its sinful and loathsome monument!
It is a comely enough little town, lapped in a pleasant
country, but one can never forget its slaughter-yard. You
see its site from the car window as you come up from the
south. Its southwestern corner came down to within fifty
feet of the railroad track. Its northwestern corner came up
to the town line, and is scarcely eighty rods from the principal hotel.
The Salisbury military prison was established in the summer of 1863. At first, and for more than a year, it was
occupied as a penitentiary for the confinement of what were
called State prisoners, - Southern Union men, captured
naval officers, deserters from the Union armies, and Northern men held on suspicion or as hostages. It was first used
as a place of confinement for soldiers captired in battle in
the fall of 1864. Previous to that time persons confined
here were treated much better than at the majority of the
Rebel prisons; but some time in the summer of that year
Major John H. Gee, of Selma, Alabama, a coarse and brutal
wretch, was made commandant; and his cruelties not only
soon balanced the account, but made the prison the terror
of our army, and only less dreadful than Andersonville.
The prison proper was a brick building, forty by one hundred feet in size, and four stories in height, formerly a cot
102 
THE SALISBURY STOCKADE.
ton factory. Connected with it were six small brick buildings,- formerly offices and tenement houses,- and a small
frame hospital, large enough for no more than fifty or sixty
beds.
At a later day these buildings were enclosed in a yard
of about six acres, and, after the fall of 1864, were entirely
used for hospital purposes. The stockade wall was a stout
board fence some twelve feet in height, on which sentinels
were stationed fifty feet apart. Inside the wall was a ditch,
varying in width from six to ten feet, and in depth from
three to six feet.
In the spring and summer of 1864 respectable citizens
were allowed to visit Northern men confined here, and the
condition of the prisoners at that time was comparatively
good. I am satisfied that there were some genuine Union
people resident in the town, and many more in the counties
to the westward. These never wearied in good offices to
the prisoners, and for a while they did much to mitigate the
rigors of confinement. All this was changed, however, when
Gee became commandant, and particularly after the Rebels
began to confine soldiers here.
In the fall and winter of 1864 not less than fourteen
thousand men were herded within this small enclosure like
sheep, tortured with infernal malignity, cheated of food when
the storehouses half a mile away were bursting with rations,
cheated of shelter when fifty or sixty thousand feet of lumber
originally intended for this use was lying useless at the upper end of the town, cheated of fuel when magnificent forests
were almost within rifle-shot!  The poor wretches fought
for bones like dogs. One boy went crazy, and ate nearly
all the flesh from his arm below the elbow! To save themselves from storm and cold, they burrowed in the earth like
wild animals; and the keeper went round of a morning and
stirred up the mass in each hole to see how much of it had
died during the night!  It is beyond all human comprehen
103 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
sion why Divine Mercy permitted these things to be.  The
number of deaths ran as high as seventy-five per day; in
one period of eight days, five hundred and twenty-six were
tumbled out for the dead-wagon; for three months the daily
average was not less than forty. In the aggregate the Rebellion murdered here over seven thousand men!
The prisoners, thanks to the tender mercies of their captors, came to the place generally without shoes or blankets,
rarely with overcoats, and often without blouses. The buildings in the stockade were soon overflowing with the sick.
For those not admitted to the hospital there was very little shelter, though it is said by negroes that the prisoners
begged again and again for the privilege of going out under
guard to cut logs to use in building barracks.  The winter
of 1864-65 was unusually severe in this latitude, and snow
fell here to the depth of three inches on several occasions
between the 1st of November and the 1st of March.
It is beyond all question that the wretch Gee deliberately
starved many of the prisoners.  Men who were Rebels during the war admit as much. I am told that the commissary
warehouses were full of provisions, which the commandant
again and again refused, in shockingly profane terms, to
issue even to the poor creatures in hospital. Much of the
time only half-rations were allowed, and on more than one
occasion hundreds of men got nothing for forty-eight hours.
The sufferings of the prisoners were so great that efforts
were constantly making to escape. That many of them did
escape we all know.  "Golly, I seed a-many of'em come
down fru ole Mas'r's fiel' to Pete, hes cabin," said an aged
negro man whom I met yesterday. lIe lived thirty miles
west of the town last winter, and had been horsewhipped for
feeding the Yankees.  That the prisoners were sometimes
aided in escaping by officers of the prison is at least believed
by not a few persons living hereabouts.
Concerning the insurrection which took place here last
104 
THE SALISBURY STOCKADE.
November, one can learn but little. That a small body of
prisoners rushed upon the guard for the purpose of overpowering them, that they succeeded in this endeavor, that they
failed to get out of the stockade, that the gun of the fort at
the corner was turned upon the prison and fired, that at least
one hundred men were killed or severely wounded, - so
much my persistent inquiries seem to establish.
"Does ye call dis yer hor'ble?" said a negro man whom
I met this morning as I walked over the stockade; "I calls
it beautiful since Stoneman polished it up." Indeed, flame
and wrath did their work well, and the Salisbury military
prison is a thing of the past, which man nevermore can see.
The walls of the old factory building stand intact, but roof
and floors and windows are all gone. The small brick buildings exist only as half a dozen irregular piles of rubbish.
Some of the hundred great oak-trees within the stockade are
already dead and others are dying. The fence shows only
a line of post-stumps and post-holes. The ditch has been
partially filled. The well which supplied the prison is no
more used. Three fourths of the great pen is covered with
a sprawling fireweed, offensive alike to sight and smell.
There is satisfaction in all this; yet signs many remain of
the dreary days of last winter. You find, in strolling about,
the broken bowl of an earthen pipe, the well-worn blade of
a belt knife, even the regulation button of a soldier's coat.
Here is where the earth was scooped away to make a bank
in which bricks could be laid so as to give draft for a fire;
there you see where other bricks were laid to furnish a
heated surface for cooking purposes.
Treading at random over ground on which there is neither grass nor vegetation, you seem often to find yourself
walking on yielding soil. Here were the holes in which
men lived.   They were all filled by  Stoneman's troops;
but the filling of a few was done so imperfectly that it is
easy enough to see what they were.   From three to five feet
5*
105 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
deep, irregularly circular in shape, from two to six feet in
diameter on top, with sides so scooped under that the bottom diameter was generally half larger than the other,this is what they were. In them lived all the negro and
many of the white prisoners, for months. They were in
the lower part of the stockade, and could scarcely have been
dry even in the dryest season of the year; while one shudders at the thought of what they were in the stormy months
of winter and spring.  It was in such mud-holes as these
that Rebellion murdered our soldiers.
Night and morning the dead wagons  came.  "I saw'd
three and four and five big wagons loaded of a mornin' right
often," said the barber under whose hands I sat; "and they
dragged'em about by the legs and arms just like as if they'd
been dead hogs; and none on'em had much clothes on; and
their hair was all full of red mud; and their heads swung
over the sides of the wagon; and the fellers they'd crack a
head with their whips, and say out loud,'Lie still there, you
d-d Yankee,' and then laugh; and they didn't take no
more care on'em than's if they'd been dead hogs."
Down the road where those poor bodies were thus hauled
I walked to the place of their burial. There is a good view
of the pleasantest part of the town, as you go, and full sight
of hundreds of acres of very heavy forests. It is a long slope
to the southwest, a little muddy brook, a sharp ascent of
forty or fifty feet, and there they were tumbled out into the
trenches.  "I heerd how't was done," said an elderly white
man who came along while I sat on the fence, - "I heerd
how't was done, an' I cum over yer one Sun'ay to see was it
so bad as the soldiers said't was.'T was a cold an' nasty
evenin', sir, an' they jist caught'em up, one man to the
arms and one to the legs, an' slung'em in from the wagon;
an' some on'em said one man was n't dead, but they jist
flung him in with the rest. I never cum yer no more, sir,
till the Yankees got this yer fence built."
106 
THE SALISBURY STOCKADE.
I told an ex-Confederate captain, whom I talked with at
the hotel, what stories I had heard about the treatment of
the dead bodies, and asked him if he supposed they could
be true in whole or part.  "Well, you see, we had our best
men all in the field, and there were a good many Alabama
fellows up here, and the Major in command was a d-d villain any how, and I reckon there were some right bad things
done; but our people here protested against it to General
Lee and Mr. Davis, and't was better after that."  I suppose
he meant after Major Gee was superseded, about last NewYear's, by General Johnson. Yet no man would dare put
into print all the stories told here about the outrages on
poor stark dead bodies during the months of November and
December last.
The cemetery is a quiet, retired, and lonesome spot, forty
rods east of the railway, seventy or eighty rods southwest
of the stockade, and half a mile or so south of town. The
enclosure is nearly square, and about an acre in extent.
Around it is a neat, plain, high, and strong board fence, built
by Stoneman's orders, - the oak posts having already done
some service in the wall of the stockade. The ground slopes
gently to the eastward; in the northeastern corner are two
or three small oaks; in the southeastern some twenty or
twenty-five small pines. The bodies were laid in thirteen
long trenches. No headboards were used, no record was
kept, and it is therefore impossible to tell where any particular soldier lies. There are thirteen great graves. As the
heartless Rebel guards filled them, so they must forever
remain.
107 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XIII.
AFFAIRS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
GREENSBORO, September 30, 1865.
HERE were three of us in the stage from Columbia to
Winnsboro on the evening of the 25th,- a North Carolina planter, and an ex-Rebel colonel, beside myself. The
planter was a coarse, vulgar fellow, whose whole thought
seemed to be given to an effort to outwit the officers of the
Freedmen's Bureau, and "git shet" of some sixty negroes
on his tobacco plantation. The colonel was a man of much
travel, liberal culture, and good heart, - glad the war is
over, anxious to hereafter live in peace with everybody, and
fearful that the negroes of the State will see very sore times
before spring.  We  made  the thirty-two miles in eight
hours, at an expense of nine dollars apiece.
The trip hither from Winnsboro is made by railway, one
hundred and sixty-four miles, in sixteen hours, at a cost of
twelve dollars, exclusive of meals.
On that section of the road from Winusboro to the
Catawba River the rolling stock is passably good, and our
train consisted of a baggage car, a negro car, a passenger
car, and two freight cars. Our passengers were about a
dozen negroes, twenty soldiers, three ladies, and ten citizens.
Stoneman burned the long bridge over the Catawba, and it
is not likely to be rebuilt before next summer.
Half a mile below the river we left our train, and were
brought to this bank  in a comfortable  covered  wagon,
crossing the wide stream on an insecurely fastened pontoon
bridge. It so happened that when the railroad bridge was
destroyed most of the cars were below the river; and our
new train consisted of an old freight car, into which negroes
and baggage loaded, and a miserable second-class passenger
108
I
I 
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
car, with a plain wood bench on each side in place of the
ordinary seats. There were neither curtains nor blinds for
the windows, and the mercury stood at about ninety.
On the section of railway from Charlotte to Greensboro
the rolling stock is comparatively good, many of the cars
just having been thoroughly repaired and repainted. The
road-bed is also in much better condition than that of any
South Carolina road, though the iron is badly worn, and must
soon be in great part replaced. The line runs two passenger trains per day each way, with an express freight car
attached to the morning train.
Sleeping cars are apparently an unknown thing on Southern railways, and bid fair to be so for some time to come.
One can't help wondering frequently how it is possible for
any one to be so stupidly opposed to comfort as are large
numbers of Southern persons.
If sun and compass were both at fault, general observation
would give ample assurance that I had moved northward.
Much of the country through which one travels in Western
North Carolina is suggestive of Pennsylvania, though occasionally there are oak openings like those of Minnesota
and high plains like those of Iowa. Moreover, it abounds
in small farms rather than in large plantations; and corn,
not cotton, is the principal product. There are apple orchards and many peach-trees, some fences, and occasionally a
comfortable and pleasantly situated farm-house. The ability
of cooks for ruining eatables whilst preparing them for the
table is also something less up here than in the low country,
though they apparently labor to their utmost even in this
State. Salvation for any one from the North lies in the
fact that the average white of North Carolina is less intelligent than the average white of the other State, and therefore
the effort to ruin the negro cook has not been as successful
here as there.
Winnsboro and Chester in South Carolina, and Char
109. 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
lotte and Salisbury and Greensboro in North Carolina, are
five towns after one pattern. Each is a county town of three
or four thousand inhabitants, and each has two hotels of such
character that the chance traveller stopping at either wishes
he had gone to the other. Each town is noticeable for extreme length and an extreme absence of width. There is a
main street, broad and dirty, about a mile in length, with a
deep well and great pump in the middle of the carriage-way
toward each end, and another about half-way between; one
narrow and dirty street on each side the broad avenue; about
a dozen narrow and dirty cross-streets. In each town the
business is mainly done on the principal street, and in each
town the best private residences are at either end of this
principal street.
Inquiry and observation have satisfied me that the ten
hotels in these five towns are not unlike one another in many
features. Give whatever directions you may in the evening, you are sure to be roused up half an hour after
daylight. The servant wants your boots; leave your boots
outside on retiring, and he wants to bring in fresh water;
leave your boots and pitcher outside, and he wants to come
in to brush your clothes; leave your boots and pitcher and
clothes outside, and he insists on waking you to see if you
don't want something; call him to your room five minutes
before retiring, assure him that you wear cloth shoes, don't
use water, can shake out your own coat, and will not want
anything in the morning but sleep, and just as surely as
next morning comes, so will that negro boy, who straightway
pounds at your door till you are wide awake, and then asks
if you are going in the early train! At each of the hotels
where I stopped there was plenty of coffee at supper, but
neither request nor direction of mine could bring tea; while
at one place a boarder told me he had made diligent effort
daily for a week to get it, and then had given up in despair.
I begin to meet avowed Rebels.  It is a mistake to sup
110 
NORTH CAROLINA UNIONISM.
pose that this class of creatures is confined to South Carolina,
even a mistake to suppose that it resides in that State in
any considerable numbers. There are half a dozen here to
one down there. Sherman visited that State; his army swept
through it like a demon of devastation and destruction. No
pen could tell how the pride and beauty thereof are laid in
ruins. Yet that treatment was what the haughty little State
needed. Let no man ever extenuate or apologize for his
course. Less fire would have spared more property, but also
more rebellion. More fire would have made more healthy
spirit in this State. The people in the western part scarcely
know, so far as their material interests are concerned, that
there has been a war.
In South Carolina every man was ready to take the' oath;
he made no professions of Unionism, but he owned that he
had been fairly beaten, wanted peace and privilege of trade,
and would sincerely obey the government hereafter. Here
there is a great deal of talk about "our rights," a great deal
of complaint at the action of the government, and a great
deal of that spirit which still refuses either to acquiesce or
to be comforted. The manner of speech there in regard to
the "Yankees " -  meaning thereby all the people of the
North - was respectfully appreciative even when indicative
of bitter personal hatred. With the Rebel population of
this section a "Yank" is spoken of in terms not only of
dislike, but of contempt.
I was somewhat curious to see the Unionism of Western
North Carolina of which we heard so much during the war.
Considerable of it, I am convinced, was less a love for the
Union than a personal hatred of those who went into the
Rebellion. It was not so much an uprising for the government as against a certain ruling class. This is, of course, a
general remark; for I find many intelligent men, whose
Unionism is of the judgment and affection, and whose speech
on almost every phase of the question at issue would do no
ill 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
discredit even to the radicalism of Massachusetts.  Yet a
rebellion against the little tyranny of local politicians was
unquestionably at the foundation of much of the opposition
to the Davis government.
For a man who wholly and passionately hates a Rebel,hates him without the least allowance for any extenuating
circumstance, -give me, however, one of these North Carolina Unionists.
At Charlotte, I found one of them. He was something
like sixty years of age, but seemed vigorous as most men at
forty.  "There's six or seven creeturs up in my deestric' as
can't live there a gret while, now I tell ye," said he to me
when I asked him how the Union men and the late Rebels
got along together; "our deestric''11 git shet of'em putty
soon. Ef they's fellers as can't taken a wink, we'11 jest
haf ter giv''em a nod." And he brought his arms and head
into position for sighting a gun.
"You don't mean that there'11 be any shooting done,"
said I.
"Don't I, though?" he answered.
"But the military will look after such things, and the
county militia will very soon arrest any man who is lawless."
"Jes' so; but thar's jest six G-d d-n infernal sneakin'
Rebels up in my deestric' as can't no how at all live thar six
weeks longer. That thing's settled, Mister, and thar ain't
no use talkin'!"
"But is there such feeling against the Confederate soldiers
all through youri county?   Can't you let bygones be bygones, and all live in peace, and all turn in to improve the
country and work on the farms?"
"It's jest here, bMister: I don't speak fur nothin' but my
deestric', an' what I tell ye is what me an' my neighbors
'11 stand to."
State the question to him as I would, he had only the one
answer. He had nothing to say for any other part of the
112 
REBELS AND UNIONISTS.
county.  The word "district" is unusual hereabouts, and I
could get from him no definite idea of the extent of territory
it included, though he said there was a matter of five hundred people lived there.
The old man was singular only in his expression of the
idea that there can be no fellowship with the ex-Rebel soldiers. In other forms I have heard it from at least a score
of men since coming into the State.  The feeling of hostility
does n't seem so much founded in cool judgment as in passionate instinct. I know words are very cheap; but so many
men from such different sections of the western half of the
State could not speak to the same effect unless there were
a general public feeling to that effect.
I made many inquiries, having in view the purpose of
learning if the return of Rebel soldiers has been prevented
by force or threats, or if there have been any outrages upon
their persons or property. I found all men disinclined to
converse upon the subject. A countryman from near Morgantown said a Rebel lieutenant was found dead near his
house one morning three weeks ago, shot from behind
through the head. An intelligent negro man from the section thirty miles back of Salisbury told one of the merchants
of that town, in my hearing, that a certain Mr. Benson, formerly of that county, who had been in the Rebel army, was
shot two weeks ago to-day by some person unknown.  Men
of character in Salisbury and Charlotte, as well as in this
town, tell me that they have no doubt the ex-Rebel soldiers,
those who were in any sense leaders, will fare hard at the
hands of the mountain Unionists.
On the other hand, an out-and-out unconquered Rebel
who introduced himself to me at Salisbury, by asking
"Which way did you come from, stranger?" to which question I simply answered "'From below," and who therefrom
seemed to conclude that I must be a Rebel also,- this man
said to me substantially that the Union men of the western
H
113 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
portion of the State, whom  he invariably called "nigger
Yankees," are the "meanest set of men the sun ever saw";
did n't go into the army because they "are cowards and
d-n fools," and "will have to lower their tail-feathers a
good deal or get into trouble." So, too, an ex-Rebel captain,
on the cars between the Catawba River and Charlotte, said
to a gentleman sitting next me on the bench, that he did n't
propose to allow any "stay-at-home cuss" to lord it over
him when he got there. One of the officers on duty at district head-quarters at Salisbury told me that some of the
returning Rebel soldiers were disposed to make trouble with
the men who did n't go into the war, and particularly with
the few who had been in our service.
Thfie temper of a large number of men in this end of the
State appears to be indicated by the remark of a man opposite whom I sat at dinner one day in Salisbury. His
neighbor asked him for whom he would vote in the coming
Congressional election.
"I sha'n't vote at all."
"0 yes, vote for somebody, - vote for me if you can't
vote for any one else."
"No; I won't vote. I don't know as I'11ll ever vote
again."
"Why, man, how you talk! What do you mean?  Not
vote when so much depends upon who is sent to Congress
this winter?  Not vote?"
"No, I'11 be d-d if I do; and I'll not vote again till I
can do so without asking any d-d Yankee who I may vote
for!"
Gentlemen who appear to be careful calculators assure
me that in this section,- say the central part of the western haif the State,- not more than one half, and some even
say one third, of the legal voters appeared at the polls to
vote for Convention delegates last week, for the reason that
they knew that they could not vote for whom they pleased.
114 
FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS.
In South Carolina, as I have previously said, there was nowhere, so far as I could learn, any pretence of military interference with the election; and the composition of the Convention of that State was such, that I presume every man
freely voted for his first choice. Here, however, while
there is no complaint of direct interference by the military,
it is charged that certain men are not elected because it was
understood that the commanding officer of the district or
sub-district would not allow any leading Rebel to serve.
In the South Carolina Convention there were a score of
men whose record for Unionism was as bad, and for Rebellion as good, as that of any man in this State; and if their
election could be permitted there, it would seem there could
be no good reason for disallowing the election of such men
here. Yet I see that even the Raleigh papers assert that not
more than half the vote of the State was cast, and that many
counties send so-called Union delegates, which, under a free
election, would have sent men of an entirely different stamp.
It would appear, therefore, from all I hear up this way,
that while the South Carolina Convention represented the
actual sentiment of the people of that State, the North Carolina Convention will represent the sentiment of only one
class of people, and that the class which calls itself the
Union element.
In just what the military control or interference consisted
it is impossible to learn. Two weeks before the election
the department commander, General Ruger, issued orders
to the effect that on election day officers and soldiers would
not only be kept away from the polls, but within their respective camps, and that any person guilty of attempting to
interfere with the election would be promptly and severely
punished. So far as I can hear, there was neither violation
of the letter nor the spirit of this order.
The complaint goes behind the order, and alleges from
hundreds of mouths that certain men in every county whom
115 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the people desired to elect were compelled to refuse the
use of their names. Did General Ruger, of the department,
or General Heath, of the district, or Governor Holden, ever
issue an order, or ever say directly or indirectly, or authorize
any one else to say, that certain men must not be elected or
would not be allowed to serve in the Convention? is a
question I have, in one form or another, asked of fifty or
sixty different men. I can get no tangible evidence of interference or dictation, though it is asserted and reasserted
that there was an "understanding" that some men would,
and others would not, be allowed to serve as delegates.
The poor whites could be relied upon during the war because their instincts led them in a path parallel to that taken
by the government. Now, however, say many of our officers
on duty in this section, they give us more trouble than the real
Rebels,- those who voluntarily went into the Rebel army.
They have very little judgment, and their instincts do not
now lead them toward the ends the government is pursuing.
Not a few of them claim that the farms of the leading Rebels
should be apportioned out among those who fought Rebels.
I have already spoken of the somewhat savage disregard
of the lives of those who have been known as Rebels. There
is, further, an almost utter contempt of the property rights
of Rebels in the country districts. It is a remark one often
substantially hears,-" Every d-n thing in South Carolina ought to be destroyed, and every d-n  man driven out
of the country, and every d-n woman hung." Unquestionably these North Carolina Unionists have suffered much
from Rebels before the war as well as during the war. I
am not arguing a case against them, but only stating facts.
The root of the matter is, that they are making the readjustment just what they made the Rebellion, - a personal issue
with another class of the people. However satisfactory this
fact may be to any man or any body of men in the North, it
is one which gives trouble to our troops.
116 
THE COUNTY POLICE SYSTEM.
I did not anywhere in South Carolina, however, find
LTnion men such as are to be seen even in Salisbury of bitter
memory. The best Unionism of that State is more or less
overgrown with the rank weed of State rights, but there are
men here whose loyalty is as clean as that of Andrew Johnson. That they are numerous I cannot say, - I have neither
seen many nor heard of many; but that there are even a
score whom any ordinary traveller can find, is a sign of the
times full of encouragement. One of the Convention delegates from Rowan County is a man whom the Rebels had in
prison for his Unionism.   "The government has been a great
deal more lenient towards us than we should have been toward
the North under similar circumstances," said a Union man to
me here this afternoon, thus repeating almost the very words
of an ex-Rebel surgeon with whom I talked at Charlotte.
I saw to-day for the first time a man who would not take
"greenbacks" in payment for property.   He came in from
the country with a load of wood, and actually hauled it out
of town this evening because no one would pay him for it in
gold. MIuch inquiry in South Carolina discovered only two
or three localities in which there would be probable difficulty
in travelling without gold; but one of our majors, whom duty
has called through over a dozen of these western counties
within the last six weeks, tells me that the localities in
which paper money would be taken are the exception rather
than the rule; and a surgeon of our army whose home is
fifty miles back of this place, and who has been up on two
weeks' leave, said to me this forenoon that he lost the opportunity to make several good trades while there, because he
had only legal-tender money. The people say, he observes,
that having lost so much by one sort of paper money, they
don't propose to take any of the other sort just at present.
The local police militia system is in full force through
this section.  "How does it work?" I asked of a smart lieutenant at Concord.  "Hinders rather more than it helps,"
117 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
said he.  I asked the same question of a smart negro man
from the country back of Lexington, and he replied, "'Pears
like it be ruther hard on de poor nigger." Yet, on the whole,
I am satisfied that it has proved beneficial.
I saw one of the officers who organized the force in half
a dozen counties. It is in companies of about seventy-five
men, with officers approved or appointed by the district commander. Arms and ammunition are furnished by the government, the officers of the company being under bond for
the proper use of the latter and the careful keeping and
ultimate safe return of the former   The force is under control of the military, and receives its orders from the assistant provost-marshals. In organizing it, this captain said he
endeavored to get the best men he could find, -men of
property and mature years, whose interest it would be to
preserve order and not oppress the negro.
Special cases there have been, I am sure, in which the
negro was abused, even by members of this force. Thus
in Concord, on the day of the election, a gang of rowdies
from the country made a wholly unprovoked attack on the
negroes with clubs and stones, and the militia was not only
found worthless for the preservation of order, but some of its
members actually joined in the brutal assault upon the blacks.
Apple-jack and whiskey were at the bottom of the row,
which resulted in the flight of the negroes, the serious but
not dangerous injury of three or four of them, the calling
out of a company of troops, the arrest of about forty whites,
of whom about half were discharged, about a dozen released
on bail, and six or seven are yet in confinement for a further
hearing.
This case is, however, exceptional; and whilst the aggregate of reported cases in which individual negroes have
been maltreated by individual members of the militia is
much larger than one would like to find it, there is no question but that the force has done very much to keep down
118 
THE FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
the antagonism between the ex-Rebels and the non-Rebels
which is so dangerous to the ultimate good of tlie negro.
With proper military authorities hereabouts, and proper
weeding out of the companies of militia from time to time,
as the disposition of its members comes to light, I am satisfied that this local police force will become a strong influence
on the right side, and be productive both of general good
order and general protection to the negro.
XIV.
THE NORTH CAROLINA FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
RALEIGH, October 3, 1865.
4  HAVE  you been into both Conventions?" said I to
1.1 an ex-Congressman from the North whom I met
here this evening, referring to the Freedmen's Convention just closed, and the Constitutional Convention two days
old.
"Yes, I've attended two sessions of each. I stopped
down at the other hotel when I got here, and I took some
pains to talk with a good many of the delegates to the Governor's Convention."
"Well, how do they talk about things in general and State
affairs in particular?"
" There is n't loyalty enough in that whole house to hurt
anything; and as for brains, they're pretty much all over
here at the African church."
Thus said the ex-Congressman, who has a national repute,
and is not classed among the so-called "radicals."
In sober truth, the Freedmen's Convention was a body
of which the negroes of this or any other Southern State
119 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
might well be proud, and which no Northern man could see
without Teelings of hearty respect.
Just what reasons certain colored men had for calling a
Convention of their people do not appear of record. This
Convention has, however, proved its own justification for
being; and has done a good work, not alone for the Freedmen of this State, but for the Freedmen of the entire South.
The call came from a committee of three, appointed at a
meeting held in Wilmington about a month ago:
"Let the leading men of each separate district issue a call for a
meeting, that delegates may be chosen to express the sentiments
of the Freedmen at Raleigh on the 29th of September, and let
each county send as many delegates as it has representatives in
the Legislature. Rally, old men, we want the counsel of your
years and experience; rally, young men, we want your loyal
presence, and need the ardor of youth to stimulate the timid;
and may the spirit of our God come with the people to hallow
all our sittings and wisely direct all our actions.
"A. H. GALLOWAY,
JoHN RANDOLPH, JR.,
GEORGE W. PRICE,
Committee."
The Convention met on Friday last, and terminated its
labors to-day, after a four days' session. The sittings were
held in the African church of this city. It is a plain, white,
wooden building, with floor accommodations for about three
hundred persons, and gallery accommodations for about one
hundred more. Its floor is carpeted and its seats cushioned.
The noticeable feature in it is a large and elegant and lifelike plaster-of-Paris bust of Mr. Lincoln, standing on a
bracket, and against a dark background in the farther end
and over the pulpit seat. Over the bust is a canvas, bordered with black, on which is neatly inscribed the last
paragraph of Mr. Lincoln's last Message:  "With  malice
toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right,
120 
THE FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care
for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and
orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
everlasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
The call provided for one hundred and twenty-two dele gates. On the assembling of such as appeared on Friday,
it was found that but about half the counties in the State
were represented. In some I presume the call has never
been seen, for the newspapers entirely ignored it till within
a few days of the time set for the Convention. Aside from
this supposition, though, there was reason enough, in the cost
of travelling and the condition of the freed people out of
the towns, for the small attendance from the western sec tion.  "We should have counted it a decided success, if
even only a quarter of the counties had been represented,"
said one of the leading delegates; "as it is, we think we
have achieved a great victory."
MIany of the delegates had regular credentials from the
proper county officers, but others were certified only by local
organizations, church societies, &c. The difficulty of the
occasion was met by resolving the affair into a general mass
Convention of those who had credentials of any sort from
any organized body of freedmen. The aggregate of delegates was one hundred and seventeen, representing forty-two
counties, - all sincere, earnest men, and most of them here
in "the spirit of our God." The great majority of them
were freedmen, not freemen, though some of them have
hardly yet been given by their late masters a realization of
the fact they are even freedmen.
The temper of the body was exceedingly good, and was
in general accord with the speech of the permanent President, - Rev. John W. Hood of Newbern, of Northern birth,
but of some years' residence in this State,- who, on taking
the chair, spoke as follows:                6
121 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION, -I hardly know how to
express my thanks for the high honor you have conferred upon me;
an honor I could scarcely have dreamed of enjoying, for I consider
that there has never been and never will be a more important
assembly than this now convened here. We have met to deliberate in a Christian spirit upon the best interests of our people,holding up before God and men as our motto,' Equal rights before the law,' yet understanding it to be wise and proper that,
whether in doors or out of doors, we should bear ourselves respectfully toward all men. Let us avoid all harsh expressions
toward anybody or about any line of policy. Let us keep constantly in mind that this State is our home, and that the white
people are our neighbors and many of them our friends. We
and the white people have got to live here together. Some people talk of emigration for the black race, some of expatriation,
and some of colonization. I regard this as all nonsense. We
have been living together for a hundred years or more, and we
have got to live together still; and the best way is to harmonize
our feelings as much as possible, and to treat all men respectfully.
Respectability will always gain respect, not from ruffians, it is
true, but from gentlemen; and I am convinced that the major
part of the people of North Carolina are gentlemen and ladies.
I do not mean one class alone, but the major part of the people,
both white and black. That being the case, if we respect ourselves we shall be respected. I think the best way to prepare
a people for the exercise of their rights is to put them in practice
of those rights, and so I think the time has come when we should
be given ours; but I am well aware that we shall not gain them
all at once. Let us have faith, and patience, and moderation,
yet assert always that we want three things,- first, the right to
give evidence in the courts; second, the right to be represented
in the jury-box; and third, the right to put votes in the ballotbox. These rights we want, these rights we contend for, and
these rights, under God, we must ultimately have."
The Convention was very much like the mass Convention
of white folks, "only a little more so."  There were parties,
cliques, demagogues, ambitious men,- there was "log-rolling," "wire-pulling," and a general exhibition of most of the
122 
THE FREEDMAIEN'S CONVENTION.
arts by which would-be leaders attempt to carry their ends
against the will of the mass. It was pleasant to see, however, that the great body of the delegates not only had a
pretty clear conception of what they wanted to do, but, as
is not always the case with convention delegates, also of
what they wanted not to do. The men who, by virtue of
some education, some travel, and some association with
Northern people, aspired to rule matters for their own interest and aggrandizement were very quietly shelved on the
second day, and thereafter found that their power was gone.
So, too, those of passionate nature and demagogical spirit,
who undertook to uplift themselves on the breakers of angry
epithet and inflammatory declamation, were also put aside
after the first day. That there were some droll scenes is,
of course, true.  Miany of the  delegates were like great
noisy, ignorant children, and acted very much as a drove
of such children do when they "play" convention.  Others
knew nothing of any meetings but the religious gatherings
of their own people, and appeared to imagine that tears and
shouts and sobs and ejaculations were as much in order here
as in the prayer-meetings of the rural districts. The natural
habit of the negro to exaggerate showed itself on the first
day and in the first hour in a scramble for a seventh VicePresidency, and afterwards worked itself into furious
speeches either about nothing or on wholly immaterial
points. The dramatic element of the negro character came
to the aid of his vivid imagination, and there were touches
of pantomime that would have been instructive even to old
Gabriel Ravel himself. Moreover, in the line of comedyacting, a dozen of these delegates were competent to give
lessons to Warren, or Clarke, or Jefferson; and three or four
of the eight sessions were, as pure entertainments, better
than two hours with Gough or any other master of humor
known to the Northern public.  The President's place was
no office of mere honor, and the most diligent use of his
123 
TIlE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
powers would have been unequal to the task of keeping quiet
and uniform good order.
Yet, when all these things are admitted, there is to be
commended the sincere earnestness of the delegates as a
body, the liberal spirit of their debates, the catholicity of
their views of duty in the present emergency, the patient
and cheerful tone of heart and head which prevailed, and
the unfailing good-humor which bridged all chasms and
overcame all difficulties. Their extra passion came only
from extra zeal; their turbulence at times was merely the
sudden flashing of warm good-will for their people; their
unseemly drollery was but a manifestation of their natural
disposition to enjoyment even under the most adverse circumstances.
Perhaps a dozen of the delegates were not native to this
State; but, with few exceptions, those who took part in the
debates or were in any way responsible for the action of the
Convention, were not only North-Carolinians by birth, but
slaves by growth,- men who have always lived and expect
to continue living in the State. It is also worth remarking
that it was really a Convention of colored men, not a colored
men's Convention engineered by white men. It was even
so strictly a Convention of the negroes of North Carolina,
that there was some sensitive jealousy toward one or two
delegates born in this State, but educated in the schools
and under the influences of the North. "We meant it for
a Convention of our own people," said one of the committee to me, "and these outsiders from Wilmington and
Newbern shall not control us." The deficiencies of the
Convention will, of course, be charged to the negroes of the
State: its excellences, properly and in simple justice, also
belong to them.
The leader of the body was MIr. John H. Harris, of this
city; a man of scarcely one eighth white blood; a former
slave who did his daily task with other farm negroes, and
124 
THE FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
sat for hours, year in and year o/t, after that task was ac complished, in the fireplace, with/ apine knot in one hand
and a book in the other; who is, in the true sense, self-educated; an upholsterer by trade, and, latterly, a teacher by
profession; a plain, patient, unassuming man, whose wise
judgment, catholic views, genuine culture, and honest manhood, fit him to adorn any station in any society.
Others of the principal delegates were Mr. A. IH. Galloway, of Fayetteville, of some service in our army, much
association with Northern people, and of exceedingly radical
and Jacobinical spirit; Mr. John P. Sampson, of WVilmington, a young man of ability, liberal education in Northern
schools, and somewhat wordy radicalism; Mr. Isham Swett,
barber, of Fayetteville, of rare dramatic talent, mature
years, ready speech, moderate views; Mr. John R. Good,
barber, of Newbern, of thoughtful heart and gray head and
simple gentlemanhood; Mr. John Randolph, Jr., of Greensboro, carpenter by trade and teacher by profession, radical in desire, but conservative in action, longing for much,
but content to make haste slowly; Mr. J. P. Shanks, of
Charlotte, of few public, but many private words, and all of
them words of soberness; Rev. Alexander Barr, of Raleigh,
diffident and unassuming, but of weight in all councils; Sergeant Foster, of the First North Carolina Heavy Artillery,
a good soldier, of few words and careful deeds; Rev. George
A. Rue, late chaplain of the Thirty-second United States
Colored Troops, a pure African, of six years' ministerial
service in.Massachusetts, whom Northern favor has made
neither foolish nor haughty.
A great many unimportant matters were needlessly brought
before the Convention, and there was much talk on trivial
affairs, and a deal of wordy debate in respect to soie legitimate business. Yet even all this was not without its value;
for it brought out many facts and opinions of general use to
the delegates as individuals, and served to help them to closer
125 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
fellowship and more unity of sentiment in respect to the
future.  On the whole, the Convention did its work with commendable directness; and there were a number of speeches,
and one or two somewhat lengthy debates, that would have
been creditable to any white man's convention, with even
picked delegates.
A dozen resolutions were reported and adopted, some of
which, as usual, were unimportant. It must be said, however, that they all meant something, - which is more than
can be said of resolutions often adopted at conventions in
the North,- and that their general sense was wise, liberal,
and appreciative.
The chief resolution declares that it is not the policy of
the colored people to flock to the cities in too large numbers,
and urges them to remain at their old homes and at their
old employments, unless good reasons exist for changing;
advises them to live soberly and honestly, work faithfully
and industriously, save money and buy a few acres of land
as soon as possible; build themselves houses, and sacredly
observe the marriage relation; avoid quarrels, and cultivate
friendly relations with the white people; help each other,
and educate themselves and their children.
Other resolutions which were adopted express reverence
for the memory of "those heroes, John Brown, Robert G.
Shaw," numerous others of less note, "and last and greatest,
Abraham Lincoln "; hail with satisfaction the passage of the
Constitutional amendment, the organization of the Freedmen's Bureau, the establishment of schools for the education
of seventy-five thousand colored children, the admission of
John S. Rock to the bar of the Supreme Court, the issuing
of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the recognition of
Hayti and Liberia; thank the good people of the North for
their aid so freely extended to the freedmen in a thousand
ways; thank that portion of the Republican party led by
Mlessrs. Chase, Greeley, Sumner, and others, for its efforts to
126 
THE FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
secure to the colored man his rights through Congressional
action; and declare that any colored man who will not do
for another colored man what he would for a white man
under similar circumstances is unworthy Of respect.
A considerable part of one afternoon was given to debate
upon a resolution which advised colored teachers for colored
children and colored preachers for colored congregations.
The resolution was supported by Messrs. Harris, Sampson,
Bass, and others, and opposed by Messrs. Galloway, Rue,
Randolph, Good, Sweat, and others. The argument for its
passage was, that it would tend to stimulate education among
the young men and women; that against it tvas, that it
would serve to set up another wall between blacks and
whites. Several delegates favored the general policy enunciated in the resolution, but opposed its passage, on the ground
that some of the more ignorant of their people would look
upon it as a recommendation not to send their children to
the schools established by the Freedmen's Bureau and the
Aid Societies of the North. This argument carried the day,
and the resolution was tabled.
The chief thing done by the Convention, however, was to
adopt an address for presentation to the State Convention
which met yesterday, and to the Legislature which meets in
November. How this address should be prepared was a
subject of anxious consideration. There was some fear at
the close of the first day's session that the Convention had
fallen into control of the unwise and hot-headed faction.
The excitement natural to the hour wore off, however, before
the next session, and the drawing up of the address was intrusted to a committee of five elected viva voce by the delegates. Five better men could not have been selected. It
was certain that their action would be wise and judicious;
and the real good sense of the Convention showed itself in
the hearty unanimity with which it adopted the following
very noteworthy paper:
127 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"To the Constitutional Convention of North Carolina and the Legis                 lature to assemble thereafter:  "Assembled as delegates from different portions of the State of
North Carolina, and representing a large body of the colored population, we most respectfully and humbly beg leave to present to
you, and through you to the people of the State, something of our
situation and our vants as a people.
"Earnestly disclaiming all wish to forestall your action or to
dictate in the solemn and important duties which have been intrusted to you at this most critical period, and confiding in your
justice, wisdom, and patriotism to guard the interests of all classes,
and more particularly of that class which, being more helpless,
will most need your just and kind consideration, we but exercise the right guaranteed to the humblest citizen in thus petitioning.
"It is with reverent and grateful acknowledgment of the Divine power and interposition, that we accept the precious boon
of freedom, resulting, as it has, from a prolonged and sanguinary
struggle between two great powers; and finally decreed as it has
been by the national will, we look forward with confidence to see
the decree ratified by the whole people of this State.
"Though it was impossible for us to be indifferent spectators
of such a struggle, you will do us the justice to admit that we
have remained throughout obedient and passive, acting such part
only as has been assigned us, and calmly waiting upon Providence. Our brethren have fought on the side of the Union, while
we have been obliged to serve in the camp, to build fortifications,
and raise subsistence for the Confederate army. Do you blame
us that we have, meantime, prayed for the freedom of our race?
"Just emerging from bondage, under which our race  has
groaned for two hundred and fifty years, and suffering from its
consequent degradation, we are fully conscious that we possess
no power to control legislation in our behalf, and that we must
depend wholly upon moral appeal to the hearts and consciences
of the people of our State.
"Born upon the same soil, and brought up in an intimacy of relationship unknown to any other state of society, we have formed
attachments for the white race which must be as enduring as
life, and we can conceive of no reason that our God-bestowed
128 
THE FREEDMEN'S ADDRESS.
freedom should now sever the kindly ties which have so long
united us.
"We are fully conscious that we cannot long expect the pres ence of government agents, or of the troops, to secure us against
evil treatment from unreasonable prejudice and unjust men. Yet
we have no desire to look abroad for protection and sympathy.
We know we must find both at home and among the people of
our own State, and merit them by our industry, sobriety, and respectfill demeanor, or suffer long and grievous evils.
" We acknowledge with gratitude that there are those among
former slave masters who have promptly conceded our freedom,
and have manifested a just and humane disposition towards their
former slaves. We think no such persons, or very few at least,
have lost their working-hands by desertion.
"At the same time, it must be known to you that many planters have either kept the freedman in doubt, have wholly denied
his freedom, or have grudgingly conceded it; and while doing so
have expelled his family from the plantations which they perhaps cleared and enriched by their toil through long and weary
years. Some have withheld a just compensation, or have awarded
such pay as would not support the laborer and his family. Others
have driven their hands away without any pay at all, or even a
share of the crops they have raised. Women with families of
children, whose husbands have been sold, have died, or have
wrongfully deserted them, have in some cases been driven away
from the homes where, under slavery, they have spent a lifetime
of hard service. Is it just or Christian thus to thrust out upon
the cold world helpless families to perish? These grosser forms
of evil we believe will correct themselves under wise and humane
legislation; but we do most respectfully urge that some suitable
measures may be adopted to prevent unscrupulous and avaricious
employers from the practice of these and other similar acts of
injustice towards our people.
"Our first and engrossing concern in our new relation is, how
we may provide shelter and an honorable subsistence for ourselves and families. You will say, work; but without your just
and considerate aid, how shall we secure adequate compensation
for our labor? If the friendly relations which we so much desire
shall prevail, must there not be mutual co-operation? As our
129
6 * 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
longer degradation cannot add to your comfort, make us more
obedient as servants, or more usefuil as citizens, will you not aid
us by wise and just legislation to elevate ourselves? 
"We desire education for our children, that they may be made
usefuil in all the relations of life. We most earnestly desire to
have the disabilities under which we formerly labored removed,
and to have all the oppressive laws which make unjust discriminations on account of race or color wiped from the statutes of the
State. We invoke your protection. for the sanctity of our family
relations. Is this asking too much? We most respectfully and
earnestly pray that some provision may be made for the care of
the great number of orphan children and the helpless and infirm,
who, by the new order of affairs, will be thrown upon the world
without protection; also that you will favor, by some timely and
wise measures, the reunion of families which have long been
broken up by war or by the operations of slavery.
"Though associated with many memories of suffering, as well
as of enjoyment, we have always loved our homes, and dreaded,
as the worst of evils, a forcible separation from them. Now that
freedom and a new career are before us, we love this land and
people more than ever before.  Here we have toiled and suffered; our parents, wives, and children are buried here; and in
this land we will remain, unless forcibly driven away.
"Finally, praying for such encouragement to our industry as
the proper regulation of the hours of labor and the providing of
the means of protection against rapacious and cruel employers,
and for the collection of just claims, we commit our cause into
your hands, invoking Heaven's choicest blessings upon your deliberations and upon the State.
"J. H. HARRIS,
JOHN R. GOOD,
GEORGE A. RUE,
ISHAM SWETT,
J. RANDOLPHE, JR.,
" Committee."
This address, in which the action of the Convention finally
crystallized, I regard as one of the most remarkable documents'hat the time has brought forth.  When  I consider
130 
THE FREEDMEN'S CONVENTION.
the untutored condition and manifold discouragements of this
people, the sudden revolution in their social and political
relations, all that they have suffered, all that they have
cause to fear, and all that they hope for, the wisdom and
propriety of their action challenges admiration. This is
their first political act; and I do not see how they could have
presented their claims with more dignity, with a more just
appreciation of the state of affairs, or in a manner which
should appeal more forcibly either to the reason or the sentiment of those whom they address.
Scarcely a quarter of these late delegates to this, the first
negro convention in a Southern State, can read and write.
Some of them have hardly yet been allowed to realize that
slavery has been overthrown,- were obliged to leave their
homes in the night, are asking safe-conduct papers from the
military authorities, and will even then quietly return home
in the night. They are dressed in the very cheapest of
homespun, are awed by the very atmosphere of a city, speak
a language that no Northern white man can understand. To
them, as to all men, by travel and association there has come
enlargement of view, enlargement of desire and aspiration,
a new sense of freedom, and a new purpose to labor for
their rights. To them and to all others there has also come,
I am convinced, a new sense of the responsibilities of manhood, and a new sense of the manner in which they must
meet these responsibilities.  They came up "in the spirit
of our God," -they have not forgotten God in all their
labors; who shall doubt that He will bless this work of
theirs?
131 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XV.
THE ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL OF THE NORTH
CAROLINA STATE CONVENTION.
RALEIGH, October 5, 1865.
N obedience to the proclamation of Provisional Governor
Holden, the State Convention met at noon on Monday,
the 2d instant. The third day's session has closed, and no
business of importance has yet been done. The delegates
begin their work as though they expected to be here three or
four weeks. In South Carolina, where the whole Constitution was to be remodelled, but nine committees were appointed, while here thirteen have been already ordered, and the
Committee on a Division of Business has not yet concluded
its labors.
The Convention is composed of one hundred and twenty
delegates, all of whom are present but three, detained at
home by sickness, as is understood. Of the number there
are six of Governor Holden's eight provisional judges, five
of his eight provisional solicitors, and two members of his
personal military staff.
The sessions of the Convention are held in the hall of
the House of Commons,- that is, the lower house of the
Legislature,- in the north end of the State Capitol. The
room much needs cleaning and painting.   Its only ornament is a full-length copy of Stuart's Washington, which
hangs at the right of the Speaker's chair, and has been
retouched by a daubing artist, I judge. The sessions of the
Secession Convention of May, 1861, were also held in this
hall.
In point of average ability, I think the delegates here rank
above those in the South Carolina Convention; though in
that body were half a dozen men whose standing is equalled
132 
THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONVENTION.
by not more than one or two delegates in this. In that, however, were a great many fifth-rate or sixth-rate men; while
here the majority are second-rate or third-rate men as compared with those. There half a dozen men controlled the
action of the whole body in respect to most questions; here
there are a score or more who deem their opinions of some
special importance.
The temporary President of the body was Lewis Thompson, of Bertie County, a man sixty years old, of straight
figure, with a pleasant and wrinkled face, white up-standing
hair, reddish gray throat and chin whiskers. He is pointed
out as the richest man in the State prior to the war, and is
one of the real out-and-out Union men of the Convention.
The permanent President is Honorable E. G. Reade, of
Person County. He is a tall, slim man, with iron-gray hair,
whiskers, and moustache; is quiet, easy, precise; has a thin
face and a particularly thin nose, and wears kid gloves during
the sessions of the Convention. He is regarded as one of
the best jurists in the State, was a Whig and an opponent
of secession and State rights, and is now provisional judge
of the eighth circuit by appointment of the Governor. The
proceedings of the Convention indicate that he was the only
nominee for the Presidency. The question was settled in a
preliminary meeting, at which he received twenty-seven out
of one hundred and three votes, the remaining seventy-six
being distributed among eleven candidates. Mr. Reade,
having the highest number of votes, was unanimously agreed
upon for the office. His speech on taking the chair contained one passage which, for touching felicity of expression,
is not often excelled in public speeches:
"Fellow-citizens, we are going home.   Let painful  reflections
upon our late separation, and pleasant memories of our early
union, quicken our footsteps toward the old mansion, that we may
grasp hard again the hand of friendship which stands at the door;
and, sheltered by the old homestead, which was built upon a rock
133 
THE SOIUTH SINCE THE WAR.
and has weathered the storm, enjoy together the long bright
future which awaits us."
After the delegates had presented their credentials, they
were called forward in groups, and sworn to "support the
Constitution of the United States." I recall that at Columbia only a few delegates were sworn, and that they were
required to take the amnesty oath.
The Governor's message came in on the second day. It
was so brief that its reading occupied no more than five
minutes. He takes it for granted that the Convention will
recognize the abolition of slavery, provide that it shall not
be re-estab]ished, and submit the amended Constitution to a
vote of the people. He quotes the paragraph which I have
given from President Reade's address, and further says:  "North Carolina attempted, in May, 1861, to separate herself
from the Federal Union. This attempt involved her, with other
slaveholding States, in a protracted and disastrous war, the result of which was a vast expenditure of blood and treasure on her
part, and the practical abolition of domestic slavery. She entered
the Rebellion a slaveholding State, and emerged from it a nonslaveholding State. In other respects, so far as her existence as a
State and her rights as a State are concerned, she has undergone
no change.
"Allow me to congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the favorable
circumstances which surround you, while engaged in this great
work of restoring the State to her former and natural position.
It is my firm belief that the policy of the President in this respect,
which is as broad, as liberal, and as just as the Constitution itself,
will be approved by the great body of the people of the United
States; and that the period is not distant, if we are true to ourselves, and properly regardful of the reasonable expectations of
our friends in other States, when our senators and representatives will resume their seats in Congress, and when our State will
enjoy, in common with the other States, the protection of just
laws under the Constitution of our fathers."
From Columbia I had occasion to report that there was a
sharp struggle in the Convention concerning the number of
134 
THE PARTIES OF THE CONVENTION.
committees that should be appointed, wherein the up-country carried the day in favor of eight, as against the lowcountry, which wanted but two or three. This Convention
does things differently. It appointed one business committee of nine, which cuts out work for the Convention, and
recommends the appointment of various special committees
for certain designated purposes. As I have already said,
thirteen of these special committees have been ordered and
selected.
I note, too, that in Columbia the floor of the Convention
was gladly made free to correspondents of Northern papers.
Here, however, Colonel C. C. Clarke, late of the Rebel
army, moved on the first day to admit only five reporters,
being the number present from this State. Other delegates
came to the rescue of the six from the North; Mr. Clarke's
resolution went to the table; and the hall is opened to the
representatives of all papers.
I further note that the United States flag has been ordered raised on the Capitol here while the Convention is in
session. At Columbia it was not named in the Convention; and Head-quarters flag, on the hotel at which most of
the delegates boarded, was such an unpleasant sight that
three or four of them expressed a desire for its removal.
I find that I, in common with many other persons of the
North, was entirely wrong in supposing that the Whig party
and the Democratic party, as distinct political organizations,
died at least ten years ago. I saw nothing in South Carolina to convince me of my error; but here, in North Carolina, I discover, with proper amazement, that the old parties
are both alive, and neither of them a whit older or less
pugilistic than it was twenty years ago.  To be an "old
line Whig" is to be a perfect gentleman, while to be an
"old line Democrat" is to be a vulgar fellow outside the
pale of good society; or, on the other hand, to be an "old
line Democrat" is to be a man of good sense and sound
135 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
opinions, while to be an "old line Whig" is to be a conceited
fool and bloated aristocrat.
This old party spirit is, - I write it with questioning of
To-Day if this really is the year 1865, and if there really
has been a world-astounding war of four years' duration,this old party spirit is the foundation-stone of this North
Carolina Constitutional Convention.  Delegates talk of the
Whig party and of the Democratic party, even during grave
and serious debates on the most important questions. It is
the Democratic party, one class affirms, that made secession
a possible thing, and brought the State to the verge of ruin.
It is the Whig party, the other class retorts, that was half
disloyal to the State, and caused disaster by its supineness
and coldness in behalf of the war. These things are publicly spoken on the floor of the Convention, while in private
conversation half the delegates have no measuring-rule for
a man but the fact that he is either a Whig or a Democrat,
and no judgment for a measure but that it originates with
one of these parties. When I found that the old parties
appeared to flourish in the western part of the State, I supposed the appearance due either to some local cause or to
the fact that I happened to meet only the one man in fifty
who clung to the old style of expression; but I observe that
delegates and hangers-on from all sections use the words of
twenty years ago as glibly as ever, whence I conclude that
Whigs and Democrats flourish as in other days from one end
of the State to the other.
Of the one hundred and seventeen delegates in this body, I
judge that there are about eight or nine who, in the winter of
1860- 61, really believed in the constitutional right of a State
to secede; about twenty more who desired North Carolina
to secede, and did n't trouble themselves to settle the question whether she had a right to do so; and about a dozen
more who wanted her to go out, but recognized that it
would be an act of rebellion for her to do so: leaving sev
136 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE CONVENTION.
enty-five or eighty who were not believers either in seces  sion or revolution. Of these, I judge, about twenty-five
quietly acquiesced in the work of the Secession Convention;
about forty submitted to Confederate rule, but were always
its avowed enemies; and about eight or ten stubbornly re fused to acknowledge any allegiance to the Rebel govern ment. This, I believe, may be taken as a fair statement of
the record of the delegates. The progress and result of the
war, however, changed the views of many of those who
originally favored rebellion or secession; and of the whole
number, not more than the odd seventeen were, I judge,
known as "Secessionists" at the close of hostilities.  Of these
seventeen, I doubt if more than half a dozen are to any ex tent believers in the State-rights doctrine, and Judge Manly,
of the Supreme Court, is the only one who has avowed his
belief publicly in that dogma.
Nine of the delegates in this body were members of the
Secession Convention, viz.: - Giles Mebane of Alamance
County, E. J. Warren of Beaufort, D. D. Ferrebee of Camden, Bedford Brown of Caswell, George Howard of Edgecombe, R. P. Dick of Guilford, W. A. Smith of Johnston,
John Berry of Orange, and A. H. Joyce of Stokes. Of this
nine, four held positions, civil or military, under the Rebel
government; and two, Messrs. Dick and Warren, are now
provisional judges.
In the Secession Convention, Mr. Dick, present judge of
the seventh circuit, was chairman of the Committee on General Amendments to the Constitution, and the mover of the
long-debated proposition for submitting the ordinance ratifying the Constitution of the Confederate States to a vote of
the people, which was lost by thirty-four to seventy-two.
Mir. Warren, present judge of the second circuit, was the
mover, in that Convention, of the exceedingly troublesome
proposition, that the powers delegated to the Confederate
government might be at any time withdrawn by the people
137 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
conferring them,- a proposition embodying the very quintessence of State-rightsism, on which, I believe, a direct
vote was never reached; the usual method of procedure
having been to postpone it from time to time, by an average
vote of about two to one, for the consideration of some other
measure.
B. F. Moore, of this city, is not only one of the ablest men
in the Convention, but also in the State. His standing is
indicated by the fact that he was put at the head of the committee appointed to prepare business for the Convention.
Hie is a clear-headed and comprehensive lawyer, of short
and stocky person, round and strongly marked face, rosy
complexion, white hair, clean-shaven chin, and, though carrying at least sixty-five years, stands as straight and square
as a boy of twenty. Intellectually he is tough and pugnacious; politically he is a Whig, and an uncompromising
opponent both of Secession and Rebellion.
"Uncle Nat Boyden," though not one of the ablest men,
should be set down as one of the leaders of the Convention.
He lives at Salisbury, and must be near seventy years of
age.  His hatred of Secessionists and "the infernal heresy of
secession," as he terms it, is something charming to see. He
is at the head of the Committee on the Ordinance of Secession. In appearance he is one of the cleanly, precise gentlemen of the old school: in manner he is blunt and courteous. He is of slight and bent figure, and has a delicate
and scholarly face, noticeable for its small chin and exceedingly high, full, and broad forehead. His plain, hard, practical good sense, rather than any particular ability or acumen,
gives him a good deal of power among the average men of
the Convention; and he stood next to Mr. Reade in the informal ballot for the Presidency.
Honorable Thomas Settle, Jr., of Rockingham County, of
some years' service in the Legislature, and for one or tweo
sessions Speaker of the lower house, was given the chairman
138 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE CONVENTION.
ship of the regular committee on the slavery question, and
afterwards that of the special committee on the State debt.
He is a man about six feet in height, one hundred and ninety
pounds in weight, and thirty-eight years of age; erect,
broad-shouldered, with full face, firm mouth, bronzed and
rosy cheeks, large black eyes, and black hair and whiskers.
lie speaks with force and unmistakable emphasis, gesticulates with a full sweep from the shoulder, and adds a sincere love of the Union to a hearty hatred of Secessionists.
A. E. Manly, of Craven County, is perhaps the leading
Calhoun man of the State, as he certainly is the only member of the Convention who has courage and frankness
enough to openly avow his belief in the doctrine of State
rights.  "I still believe in that doctrine, as expounded by
Mir. Calhoun," said he, this afternoon, "and still hold that
it is necessary, to save us from centralization and secure to
us our rights under te Constitution."  Mr. Manly is a tall,
spare man of about fifty-three, I judge, with a noticeably
long, thin face, much cut up with fine wrinkles. He has a
firm mouth, thin Roman nose, and square forehead, almost
covered with the reddish gray hair which falls from above
and is combed up from the sides. Forget everything else
about him you might, but, having seen him even but once,
you never could forget his eyes,- small, steely, restless,
incisive, half-closed, set far back under jutting frontals,
eyes that at first glance seem to see nothing, but that unquestionably do see everything.   Mr. Manly is a poor
speaker, a very able jurist, and was one of the secession
leaders, and a judge under the Rebel government.  "I am
willing," he now says, "to vote for a resolution declaring
that the arbitrament of the sword has decided against the
right of a State to secede from the Federal Union."
John Pool, of Bertie County, is called one of the ablest
lawyers in the State. He is said to be a very strong and
clear-headed Union man, and is mentioned as a probable
139 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
candidate for the United States Senate. Hle is a short
and thick-set man of forty-five or thereabouts, has a round
and genial face, prominent nose, small gray eyes, broad and
wrinkled forehead, short and grizzly whiskers, and thin dark
hair. He speaks with ease and freedom, and appears to have
a passion for good cigars.
XVI.
DEBATE AND ACTION IN RESPECT TO THE ORDINANCE
OF SECESSION.
RALEIGHr, October 7, 1865.
HE  Convention has been five days in session, and has
done but one thing. That thing, however, it did in the
most thorough manner, - did so decisively that it will not
ever again need doing in this State.
When Mr. Boyden was announced as chairman of the
Committee on the Ordinance of Secession, everybody understood that the Secessionists would get no favor from that
committee. There was little surprise, therefore, when he
reported the following:  "Be it declared and ordained by the delegates of the good
people of the State of North Carolina in Convention assembled,
and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance of
the Convention of the State of North Carolina, ratified on the
21st day of November, 1789, which adopted and ratified the
Constitution of the United States, and all acts and parts of acts
of the General Assembly ratifying the same, are now and at all
times since the adoption and ratification thereof have been, in
full force and effect, notwithstanding the supposed ordinance of
the 20th day of May, 1861, declaring that the same be repealed,
rescinded, and abrogated; and the said supposed ordinance is
now, and at all times hath been, null and void."
140 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
When this came in, an effort was made to get immediate
action by a suspension of the rules; but Judge Manly said
its phraseology was very objectionable to him, and he hoped
the usual method of business would be adhered to, in order
that he might have time to prepare an amendment. It was
accordingly laid over. When it came up in regular order
yesterday, Mr. D. D.  Ferrebee, of Camden  County, announcing that he concurred in view with Judge Manly, offered the following as a substitute and a compromise:
"IVe, the delegates of the good people of the State of North
Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it
is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance of the Convention of the State of North Carolina, ratified on the 21st day
of November, in the year 1789, which adopted and ratified the
Constitution of the United States, is in full force and effect; and
the ordinance of the late Convention of the State of the 20th
day of May, in the year 1861, is hereby declared to be null, and
the same is hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated."
Judge Manly said he would accept the substitute, though
he did not altogether like it. He very briefly argued that
the language of the original was both unusual and unnecessary, and that it gravely reflected upon the able body which
passed the ordinance of secession.
Thereupon the debate began, and the end was not reached
till ten long hours had been consumed in talk. Twelve
gentlemen advocated the original report, and eight favored
the substitute. The difference between the two propositions
lies in a single sentence,- the one simply repeals the ordinance of secession, while the other declares that ordinance
to have been always null and void.
All that was said on the actual merits of the question in
issue did not occupy more than two hours. Several sterling
Union men, whose lips have been sealed for four or five
years, took the opportunity to lash certain Secessionists and
pound the dogma of secession; and what they had to say
141 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
was by no means the least relishable part of the discussion,
though it had no relevancy directly to the matter in hand.
There were more, however, who "had no intention of speaking," &c., but would "take the opportunity," &c., "to say
a few words," &c., "to define my position," &c.  I suppose
it was all right, but I own that I could n't see the need for
so much explanation, if all the Unionism has such age and
purity as it claimed for itself! Half the twenty speakers
professed themselves unable to see any very essential difference between the two propositions, and of course couldn't
understand why the leaders should manifest such interest in
the debate.
Mr. Nathaniel Boyden, of Salisbury, chairman of the
committee, defended the ordinance which he had reported.
He thought it of the utmost importance to declare that
the secession ordinance had always been null and void,
and that the ordinance of 1789 had always been in force.
Before the passage of the ordinance of 1861 the State
occupied her true position, and all her rights under the Constitution were granted to her. It is now of the greatest
importance that we should affirm that we have always been
entitled to those rights, and only deprived of them by illegal
military force. I desire to put her in such position that no
one in Congress can set up a denial of her equality when
her representatives present themselves there. You may
say that the President admits that we have never been out
of the Union. I answer that it is not sufficient for him to
admit it, -we cannot fairly claim our rights unless we here
so affirm. Before 1861 our people never felt the Constitution of the United States except through its blessings. I
pray to God that it may be at once fully restored to us.
I want the secession ordinance buried so deep that even
the Day of Resurrection can't find it.  Who clings to it
now? Have we not had enough of it? Are not all our
hearts heavy with loss and sorrow, -is not the land red
142 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
with the death-blood of our bravest and best? God give us
clearness of sight and strength of will to do our duty like
men! There never was anything more than a pretence for
secession, and it becomes us now to make an end of the
infernal heresy.   The wording of this ordinance is not
intended to be discourteous, and only those wi deem it so
who are tinctured with the heresy at which it is aimed. If
it be said that the phraseology is unusual, I answer, so is
this assembly, so'is the order under which we meet here, so
is the history of the last four years, so was the action of
that body which assembled here in May, 1861.
Colonel Ferrebee, a gentleman of fine figure, good looks,
courteous manner, moderate abilities, and forty-five years,
said he had always opposed secession, but had voted for it
in the Convention of 1861, because he believed the situation
of affairs at that time made it necessary for the State to
withdraw from the Federal Union. She took a course
which she may regret, but of which she has no cause to be
ashamed. And I maintain that the ordinance of the committee casts a stigma upon every son of North Carolina who
took up arms in her defence, and is an asult to every member of the Convention of 1861. Its langiiage does not indicate calm and deliberate action, but only malice prepense. I
am as tired of the war and as anxious to return to the Union
as anybody. Why not go back with kindly feelings? We
can all vote for the substitute which I have proposed.
Why not accept it, and have harmonious action? Whether
the principle of secession is true or not, thirty thousand
North Carolina soldiers are in their graves in attestation
of the validity of the ordinance of May 20, 1861. In their
names I come forward with the olive-bianch.
Mr. John B. Odom, of Northampton County, said the
principle of coercion is as well established as if it were
written in the Constitution. The war has taught us that
the government of the United States is something more than
143 
0
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
a rope of sand, -it has given the lie to despots who say
that republicanism has no inherent life. I have no fear that
any faction will ever again attempt a dissolution of the
Union; but secession has wellnigh ruined the country.  It
is odious to me, and I care not how strong the languiage in
which I express my detestation of it. Give me the committee's ordinance,- I will accept that if I can get nothing
more pungent. The leaders of the Rebellion were men who
wanted to steal from us the freedom of the ballot-box.  Mr.
Lincoln was the Mordecai sitting in their gate, and they
undertook to play the part of Haman. I am for helping
them through. I had much rather they would rule in hell
than serve in heaven. Since the war began they've made
me swallow many a bitter pill; now I want them to take
this dose without the least sweetening.
Mr. George Howard, of Edgecombe County, one of the
circuit judges of the State during Confederate times, said
he voted heartily for the ordinance of secession, as an act
of revolution. So far as the United States is concerned, he
admitted that the ordinance has always been null and void;
but so far as the pe( ple of the State are concerned, it is the
charter under whichi they have acted and carried on a government de facto for four years, and he would not wrong
them by tearing it ruthlessly away. He denied that military
power had taken the State out, or kept it out, and said it did
not follow that those who oppose the ordinance of the committee are Secessionists.  The declaration that it was necessary to make secession odious, implied that some were
hostile to the general government. He felt sure there
was not a man in the State but came back heartily and
cheerfully.
Mr. John Pool, of Bertie County, a prominent candidate
for United States senator, said he believed the action of the
Convention to be of the utmost importance. The State is in
the Union or out of it. If in the Union, then she has the
144 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
high powers and privileges belonging to the States under the
Constitution.  If she is out of the Union, she is a conquered
province.  It is no small matter which of the two proposi tions presented is accepted.  The one declares that we have
rights which illegal acts have not taken from us; the other
makes us subjects, kneeling at the feet of the conqueror.
There is a vast difference between the two propositions. It
was intended by the fathers that the Constitution of 1789
should be binding forever. I dissent in toto from the doc trine that a State has the right to secede. I even go further, and say that I do not believe one fourth of the delegates
in the Convention of 1861 held that the ordinance of secession was constitutional.  They voted for it under constraint
of the military status then existing. They believed it a
rebellious or revolutionary measure, and at once prepared for
war. In their words they tried to make us believe that
their course was legal, and that we should come peaceably
through the difficulty; but their every act told a different
tale, and bade us expect bloodshed.  I mean to -assert no
more, now, than that they knew they were doing what was
revolutionary and unconstitutional. For myself, I don't
hesitate to admit that I have always believed the secession
ordinance null and void. It is said that the ordinance of
the committee is unusual. It is a most unusual thing for a
State to rebel, a most unusual business that we have to
settle, and it demands unusual remedies. I have yet to
learn that any course is wrong because it is unusual. Shall
we admit that we are a conqueired province? We do that
if we accept the proposed substitute. There are those in
the States never in rebellion, who affirm that the rights of
the conqueror are over us. Shall we furnish them with arguments in support of that doctrine? Not so. The act of
the Convention of 1861 was revolutionary, - the ordinance
of secession has always been null. I appreciate the scruples
of gentlemen here who voted for it; but if they believed it
J
145
7 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
constitutional, they must now vote against the ordinance
before the house, as I shall, with my views, vote against the
proposed substitute.  It is the old question of the right of
secession, on which I cannot compromise.
Colonel Ferrebee interrupted, and said that both ordinances declared the act of secession null.
MIr. Pool continued, and answered, not so. One says it is
null: the other says it wtas null. Of course, it is null now:
the result of the war has made it so; but I demand that
you shall say it always was null.  Can we compromise
there? If gentlemen want a smooth road, let them take the
stones from the path marked out by the committee. We
are told not to throw obstacles in the way: the first obstacle comes from the men who raise the cry. This is n't a
mere question of language, but a question of principle; anti  I
warn gentlemen not to overlook this fact. I am proud as
any one can be of the valor and patriotism and devotion of
the sons of North Carolina, who battled for what their leaders taught them was right. If there is a stigma on any one,
it is on us and not on them.
Colonel Ferrebee asked if the Convention of 1861 did not
obey the voice of the people in passing the secession ordinance.
SMr. Pool answered that he did not now believe, and never
had believed, that a majority of the people of the State ever
favored secession or revolution.
MIr. Edward Conigland, of Ilalifax County, would vote
for the substitute because he believed the functions of a Convention were legislative, and not judicial. He did n't believe this body had a right to go back and pass upon the
doings of a former Convention. He thought it useless to
declare that'North Carolina never favored secession.   She
would go down to posterity as having been for it almost
unanimously.
MIr. Giles MIebane, of Alamance County, who gesticulated
14 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
much with his right hand, between the thumb and first finger
of which he held an immense quid of tobacco, taken from
his mouth when he rose to speak, thought the original report only a commentary on the Constitution of the United
States, which neither the people of the State nor the authorities at'Washington required from the Convention. As
for killing the doctrine of secession, he thought Grant and
Sherman had buried that long ago. He believed the act of
1861 an act of open rebellion, but should favor the substitute because it went to the desired point in a plain way.
Mr. Samuel F. Phillips, of Orange County, said that as
the Convention of 1861 had expressed an opinion one way
on the question of the right of secession, he thought it very
important that a body of equal rank should put on record a
counter opinion, and he therefore favored the committee's
ordinance. He thought the functions of the Convention both
legislative and judicial, - in its legislative capacity it could
repeal what a former Convention had done, and in its judicial
capacity it could also declare it null from  the beginning.
He held that the doctrine of secession was a creature of the
mind, which the success or failure of an army could not
affect. Therefore it was necessary to declare the counter
proposition to that declared in 1861.
1Ir. D. F. Caldwell, of Guilford County, said he had been
mobbed, inhumanly assaulted, rotten-egged, shot at repeatedly, dragged into the army, and forced into double duty
continually, because he was an avowed Union man; and he
admitted that he couldn't have much sympathy for the fine
scruples of gentlemen who desired such tenderness of treatment for the Secession Convention.
Sir. Alex McIver, of Mecklenberg County, would accept
the substitute as a compromise.  He thought there was no
occasion for this Convention to sit in judgment on the work
of the Convention of 1861, particularly as that was so cheerfilly acquiesced in by the people.
147 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Mr. Lewis Thompson, of Bertie County, temporary president of the Convention, said this was no time to be led
astray by sentiment. Personally he had none but kindly
feelings for the gentlemen who made appeals for compromise, but there was a principle involved here on which he
never could compromise. The government of the United
States is not a mere compact, as it is called in the ordinance
of secession; and this Convention should solemnly indorse
the decision of the battle-field. This the proposed substitute does not do: it is a subterfuge, and says nothing on
the great point in issue.  He was anxious that the State
should set herself right.  Her people had never favored
secession, and the work of the Convention of 1861 was an
open insult to them.   He  wanted gentlemen to meet the
fair question, -is the government of the United States
nothing more than a mere compact, that may be dissolved
at any time on the whim of any one of the thirty or forty
parties thereto?  If they were willing to own that, then, of
course, they could very readily compromise on the substitute;
but if they believed, as he did, that the fathers of 1789 intended their ratification of the Constitution of the United
States to be forever binding on the whole people of the
State, they could not poison their souls with such miserable
sophistry.
Mr. William Eaton, of Warren County, who took much
pains to proclaim that he had opposed secession since 1850,
thought the original harsh in its terms, while the substitute
would accomplish the desired end without hurting anybody's
feelings.
Judge E. J. Warren, of Beaufort County,-  a man forty
years old, of medium size, having a dark skin, dark brown
hlair and whiskers, long nose, projecting chin, large, deeply
sunken and sluggish brown eyes, and serious, half-sad cast of
countenance, - said secession is an abominable heresy. I
was in the Convention of 1861, and voted for the act which
148 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
makes it necessary for us to come here. I denied then, as
I deny now, that any State has a Constitutional right to secede. A people may always attempt a revolution, and this
the dominant party in North Carolina had already well begun before that Convention met. The passage of the original ordinance reported to-day from your committee will only
be an act of pure justice to those of us who were forced into voting for the so-called secession ordinance. Talk to me
of courtesy to that body! To whom did they show courtesy? To the venerable Judge Badger, the brightest intellect
and the purest heart of the State? To Judge Ruffin, who
threw his great ability and commanding influence on the
side of moderation?  Their counsels were swept away like
feathers by the mad leaders of the majority. If it be argued
that the language of this ordinance is unusual, we respond
that the occasion is unusual; if it be said no other State has
gone so far in respect to the secession ordinance, we respond
that the Old North State sets a bright example of devotion
to the Union of the fathers; if we are called discourteous,
we demand why courtesy should be shown to a body which
would listen neither to age nor wisdom, but, with hot-headed
haste, passed an ordinance tearing the State away from the
Union within two hours after assembling, and then resolved
itself into a mob amid the firing of cannon and the ringing
of bells!  Yet these sensitive gentlemen, with a courtesy
all their own, now come here and charge us with mal?ce
prepense! How admirably the charge comes from them;
how appropriate are the words in their mouths! And they
tell us we shall insult the brave soldiers of our State if we
agree to the committee's report!  I tell them, and I tell the
country, that a large majority of those who bore aloft the
standard of North Carolina in this pitiful conflict -carried
it with rare honor to themselves, but with shame to the
judgment of their political leaders- have their opinions
expressed in the language of this original ordinance, not
149 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
in the lying terms of the substitute! These gentlemen who
talk so feelingly of discourtesy are afraid to unmask their
real position. If there is nothing at issue but a question of
courtesy, how does it happen that the committee's report is so
much criticised?  If there is no essential difference between
the two propositions, why is there so much talk about compromise? I charge that the whole purpose of these gentlemen is to hoodwink this Convention into an indorsement of
the legality of secession.  The  original ordinance of the
committee speaks my opinion as a judge on that question,
my sentiments as a man on our duty in the present emrnergency; and I do not doubt that it will speak the sentiment
of our children for all time to come.
Honorable Bedford Brown, of Caswell County, - once a
member of Congress, an excessively patronizing and Pecksniffian gentleman,- told, at some length, the story of his
efforts to prevent secession, and of his sufferings as a Uniion
man during the war. There were two ways, however, he
said, of doing a thing,- one becoming, and one unbecoming. The proposed substitute accomplishes enough, - the
original ordinance too much; because it is not respectful to
the people who elected the Convention of 1861 in the full
expectation that it would pass an ordinance of secession.
For that reason he should vote for the substitute.
MIr. B. F. MIoore, of Raleigh, said he drew the ordinance
now before the house. It indicated his political faith, and
what he believed to be the political faith of the people of
North Carolina. The real question is whether we have or
have not been out of the Union. Gentlemen on the other
side are willing to say we have not been citizens of the
United States since 1861.   I claim that we never have
been anything else. If you simply repeal the ordinance of
secession, you admit that our relationship as citizens was
taken away by that act.  If so. how has it been restored?
If so, by what right do we sit here under the United States
150 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
flag? How have we regained our citizenship? Who has
restored it to us?  General Grant has n't, General Sherman
hasn't.  Has Congress? has the President?
IMr. Howard said he thought the passage of the ordinance
would make void all acts of the courts and the Legislature
since 1861.
Mir. AMoore responded that he did not so believe.  He had
talked with President Johnson on that question, who held
the opinion that all acts of the State since 1861 were void
in any event.  He himself could not indorse that opinion;
but to meet all possible objections, he had prepared an ordinance legalizing all acts not in conflict with the Constitution
of the United States.
Judge MIanly argued that the act of secession created a
government de facto, even if it did not a government de jure,
and therefore had not always been null; and he, moreover,
thought this Convention was not called upon to express a
judicial opinion on the doings of the Convention of 1861.
The exact legal status of their work must be left to the decision of the courts. He denied that he favored the substitute because he believed in the right of secession, for he
was willing to vote for a resolution declaring that the result
of the war had decided against any such right. He did not,
however, desire to mix that question - that abstract question -with questions affecting the restoration of the State
to the Union.
Mr. Boyden said he had very recently been North, and
while in Washington called on the President, the Secretary
of State, the Attorney-General, the acting Secretary of
War, and other officers of the government. I alluded to
reports which had been made by representatives of the
Northern press in our State, regarding the loyalty of our
people; and I assured these officers that the statements were
mostly false and often malicious, and that the citizens of our
State are entirely cured of any love they ever-had for se
151 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
cession, and would in all respects demean themselves as
good and sincere and loyal men. The language I have
heard during this two days' debate, the bitter opposition that
this ordinance has encountered, has convinced me that I was
wrong in my assurances to the President and his associates.
The correspondents have comprehended the spirit of some
of our people more clearly than I did. Yet I am satisfied
that the great body of them will sanction our passage of the
original ordinance.  However the leaders may talk, I don't
believe you can ever get the masses into another fight with
the general government. Still, this debate has more and
more convinced me that it is necessary for us to declare that
the ordinance of secession never had any binding effect
whatever. It was an act of open rebellion, and of course falls
with the end of the Rebellion; but I want a positive declaration that no body of men ever had a right to pass such an
act. I should be glad to have a unanimous declaration to
that effect, but I can't accept the substitute for the sake of
harmony; I cannot compromise here, for there is a weighty
principle involved. Unanimity in a good cause is a grand
thing, but in any other it is a grave misfortune. It has been
well said that we are going home. As we knock at the door
of the old homestead, let us present this ordinance. It will
give assurance that neither principalities, nor powers, nor life,
nor death, nor any other thing, shall hereafter separate us
from the sisterhood of States.
The secession heresy died hard, but the Convention whs
determined to kill it. Finally, when an hour and a half beyond the usual time of adjournment had passed, when the
second day of the contest fell low in the west, and the shafts
of sunset lay silvery and horizontal in the sombre chamber,
Colonel Ferrebee, with a last scattering and damaging shot
into the ranks of his personal assailants, grounded arms and
gave up the battle.
The substitute was rejected by Yeas 941, Nays 19.  The
152 
THE VALIDITY OF SECESSION.
test vote, on the second reading of the original ordinance,
immediately followed, resulting Yeas 105, Nays 9.   The
nine who were found utterly opposed to the report were W.
A. Allen of Duplin County, T. J. Faison of Sampson, D.
D. Ferrebee of Camden, George Howard of Edgecombe, H.
Joyner of Warren, M. E. Manly of Craven, A. A. McCoy
of Sampson, H. F. Murphy of Wilmington, and R. H. Ward
of Rockingham.
It was late in the day, and everybody was tired.  "Let's
suspend the rules, and put the ordinance on its passage toni,ht," cried Settle, the fair, of Rockingham. Nobody objected, the rules were suspended, and the President stood
up and demanded in a loud and measured voice, "This ordinance having been three times read, the question is, shall it
pass?"  Somebody raised the question that, not being an
ordinance to amend the Constitution, it did not need three
readings, and was already passed. Several delegates vociferated clamorous advice, and Mr. President, new in his duties, stood half bewildered. Settle cut the knot with his
sonorous, "It's a good thing, and let's give it three readings, anyhow!"  So the measured voice again demanded,
"Shall the ordinance pass?" There was a strong and exultant "Aye," the clear and emphatic "No" of Howard and
McCoy, the suggestive silence of Manly and Ferrebee,and then the President's word of announcement, "The ordinance is passed."
Thus did the State set her heel on the head of the viper
of secession; and thus was the mild sovereignty of the old
banner reaffirmed and re-established, never more to be defied or denied in North Carolina.
7*
153 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XVII.
ACTION IN REGARD TO SLAVERY AND THE FREEDMEN.
RALEIGH, October 11, 1865.
HE  curse of North Carolina is a sort of petrified Hun    kerism.  The best men in the Convention stand unblushingly in their places and repeat, one after another, the
short creed of the Hunkers:  "I believe in the white man
only.   I believe that this country was made for white men
only. I believe this is the white man's government, and no
negro should have any part in it." Thus they justify their
individual action, and the collective action of their constituents. And they fortify their justification with the result of
the recent vote in Connecticut, of course. Thus Mr. Thomas
Settle, late District Attorney, and Speaker of the lower house
of the Legislature, and now candidate for a seat in Congress,
one of the ablest of the delegates: "This is a white man's
government, and intended for white men only, as even Connecticut, in New England itself, has just decided."
The action of the Convention on the slavery question, under the leadership of Mr. Settle, was, however, as prompt,
decisive, and radical as any man could desire. The committee to consider the subject made its report on the third
day's session, and it came up next in order after the report
respecting the secession ordinance. The clause for the new
Constitution is substantially in the words of the ordinance
of 1787, and is as follows:  "Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than for crimes,
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be and
hereby are forever prohibited within the State."
In South Carolina a long time was spent in determining
the phraseology of the slavery clause. Exceeding sensitive
1
154 
ABOLISHING SLAVERY.
ness was manifested in regard to the matter by many gentlemen, three or four of whom even went so far as to say
that they would not vote for it at all unless it recited the
"historical fact" that the abolition was by the United States
authorities. That a question of this sort would be raised
here was certain enough, but that it would find less than a
dozen supporters was unexpected.
Mr. John B. Odom, of Northampton County, proposed to
amend by inserting so that the clause should read: "The
institution of slavery having been destroyed in North Carolina, it is hereby declared that slavery and involuntary servitude," etc. HIe very briefly said that he fully accepted
the terms of the President for restoration to political rights,
and would not only cheerfully vote for the prohibition of
slavery, but would oppose any attempt to retain control of
the subject; but he thought it advisable to declare the historical fact about the matter.
MIr. Settle favored the language of the report, as being
plain, simple, and direct. If it were necessary to insert the
historical fact, let the mover go on and recite that slavery
was killed by secession, which a majority of the people of the
State always opposed; that it might have been partially retained if the Davis government had not been obstinate; and
that it received its death-thrust when the Confederate government adopted the policy of taking negroes into the army.
He could n't see any occasion for putting into the clause a
looking-glass in which future generations might see the
gaping wounds of this.
Mr. Bedford Brown also opposed the qualifying phrase.
He wanted the clause to stand as it came from the committee, pure and simple; he wanted it to appear that the
people of North Carolina now, wiser for the result of the
late war, of their own free choice abolish and forever prohibit slavery.
Probably these arguments would have proved sufficient to
155 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
kill the amendment; but its little show of vitality vanished
in an instant when a member of the Smith family moved to
insert in it after the words "North Carolina," the words, "by
the Secessionists." This palpable hit caused an explosion
of laughter, which carried it to the table with only six or
eight opposing voices.
Colonel Thomas J. Faison, of Sampson County, in manner and appearance the leader of a gang of guerillas, and in
fact a Rebel of the most virulent and malignant type, proposed to strike the word "forever" from the ordinance, "so
as to let the next generation," he explained, "do what it
pleases about the matter." Ilalf a dozen delegates were on
their feet demanding the yeas and nays; and poor Faison,
dumfounded at the storm he had unwittingly raised, withdrew his amendment, and followed that action by withdrawing himself in confusion from the chamber.
This closed the debate, which had not occupied over fifteen
minutes. It was twenty minutes before noon on the 7th
instant. One hundred and nine delegates answered to their
names on the call of the roll. William Baker, of Ashe
County, plumply responded "No"; but every other name
in the list was against him, and he changed his vote before
it was announced.
And so, by a unanimous vote of her delegates in Convention assembled, the State of North Carolina, acting under
the force of necessity, declared slavery abolished and forever prohibited within her limits. In how large and humane a sense this prohibition is declared, let the future
show.
The question of negro suffrage does not either directly or
indirectly come before the Convention; yet three or four
delegates have not failed to find occasion to show their
standing. One of them, to be sure, was tipsyish when he
did so; but in this case, as I learned in private conversation,
Philip sober did not differ in opinion from Philip drunk.
156
i. 
SUFFRAGE AND COLONIZATION.
"I am unalterably opposed to negro suffrage," said one delegate; "the negro was not intended to use a ballot."  "I
am opposed to negro suffrage, because this is a white man's
government," said another. "The legislation of the State
should be conceived in full and unreserved conformity to
existing relations, rather than to any scheme of social and
political equality," said a third.  "I can't see what people
mean who advocate negro suffrage," observed a fourth. It
is all of that sort, - no one takes cognizance of the fact that
there has been a deluge, nor of the other fact that the whole
superstructure of Southern society rests on the back of the
neg,ro.
There is in the Convention, as in some sections of the
State, a good deal of talk the drift of which I do not understand. Said one delegate: "It is uncharitable and unkind
to feel any resentment toward the negro for anything that
happened during the war; it is not his fault that he was made
free; he was faithful and obedient to the end."  Said another:
"The negro had no agency in establishing his freedom, and
we must not condemn him for that which he made no effort to
produce."  As if it were a sin to be free!  Or, as if in getting freedom the negro had got a great evil! What means
this pseudo sentiment for the freedman?
Of course colonization finds favor, and finds it in some
unexpected quarters. General Alfred Dockery, venerable
of years and venerated for his public and private character,
is its leading advocate. He urged it in a half-hour's speech,
illustrating his argument with much reference to the colonization of the Indians.  "The blacks have ceased to be producers, and the whites cannot support them," he argued;
"therefore it would be better for both races that they be
separated." Here again the North was made to do duty.
MIr. Caldwvell, of Greensboro, wanted an equal distribution
of the negroes to all parts of the country; "and when that
is done, North Carolina will do as much for the negro as
157 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Connecticut does."  AMr. Settle was extremely glad that
General Cox had dared to come out in Ohio in favor of colonization, and expressed the belief that the country would
finally settle down on the Cox and Connecticut basis. It
was pleasant to find in the Progress newspaper of this city,
the editor of which is a Southerner and a former slaveholder,
the following vigorous editorial paragraph concerning this
miserable colonization business:  "If there is any one Christian duty more binding upon the
Southern people than any other, it is the duty to take hold of
this unfortunate race and educate, Christianize, and elevate them.
If they are now licentious, ignorant, vicious, lewd, and generally
depraved, it is the result of slavery, and of itself is sufficient argument against the institution; and it should be the pride of those
who are responsible for their present condition, and who have
grown rich and prospered on their labor, to treat them with justice and kindness. The mob may throw up their hats and sing
hosannas to those political leaders who advocate running the
negroes away and oppressing them now; but right, honesty, and
justice will finally triumph, and the verdict of a virtuous, Christian people will bring them to shame. When the blacks could
be put upon the block and sold like other merchandise, and parents and children, husbands and wives, separated like cattle, the
poorest non-slaveholder had no objection to their remaining here,
and no one felt, not even the poor whites, who were kept poor
and degraded by the'institution,' that they were in the way;
but now that, in the order of Providence, they have been lifted
from the degradation of slavery, and a prospect of moral and
intellectual improvement is opened up to them, the mob cries,
' Away with them!'  And, to our shame be it said, the mob finds
leaders among those who claim to be foremost in their devotion
to the Union."
Propositions to protect the freedman from drunkenness,
by levying upon every gallon of liquor the same tax as is
levied upon each two hundred acres of land, and to provide
for the support of pauper freedmen, by levying a capitation
tax upon the able-bodied, were more or less debated, and
158 
REPLY TO THE FREEDMEN'S ADDRESS.
gave various delegates an opportunity to declaim against the
ignorance and general shiftlessness of the poor African,only one or two being fair enough to admit that slavery was
in some degree responsible for his character.
The Convention spent six hours in trying to agree upon
a proposition fixing the matrimonial status of the freedmen
and freedwomen; and then, by a vote of 68 to 42, agreed to
leave the matter for settlement by the Freedmen's Code Commission. In the debate there was something of the stale
stupidity about a white man's government, but the manner
of its enunciation was not so offensive as it might have been;
and its inherent offensiveness was somewhat redeemed by
the ardent desire of two or three delegates to see the freedmen educated and elevated. For, give them education, and
all other good things must come in its train, -give them
that, and the shackling name "freedmen" will vanish like a
ghost of the night, as it is, and they will stand before the
world in their own right as freemen.
The address of the Freedmen's Convention was sent in
through Governor Holden, courteously received, and referred to a special committee of five, of which John Pool,
of Bertie County, one of the ablest lawyers of the State, is
chairman. That committee had the subject under consideration for four or five days, and then made the following
report, which the Convention at once adopted:
"The Committee to which was referred the Address of the
Freedmen's Convention, asks leave to submit the following report:
"The subject-matter of the address and petition could be more
appropriately acted on by the Legislature than by this Convention; but the importance of the subject, and the necessity for
careful and considerate action, are so great that it may be proper
for the Convention to take some initiatory steps towards its adjustment.
" The former relations of master and slave having ceased in
159 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
North Carolina, new and mutual rights and duties have supervened, which require corresponding legislation. A large class of
the population, ignorant and poor, has been released firom the
stringent restraints of its late social and political position, and
firomn its dependence upon the individual obligations of another
class for its support, government, and protection; and it now
becomes the duty of the State to assume their charge, and enact
such laws as right and justice may require, and as may be most
conducive to the general welfare.
"The abolition of slavery has been adopted in good faith, and
with full determination that it shall not again exist in the State,
either in form or substance; but the consequences of its former
existence will inevitably affect the state of society for years to
come. In consequence of his late condition as a slave, the freedman is ignorant of the operations of civil government, improvident of the future, careless of the restraints of public opinion,
and without any real appreciation of the duties and obligations
imposed by the change in his relations to society. It is the interest of the white race, if he is to reside among us, to improve
and elevate him by the enactment of such laws, conceived in a
spirit of fairness and liberality, as will encourage him to seek his
true welfare in honest industry and the faithful discharge of the
duties of his life. His intelligence and social condition must depend upon his industry and virtue.
"Prejudices of a social character will probably forever exist.
They are not confined to this State, nor to those States or countries where the institution of African slavery has been recognized,
but have pervaded every society where the two races have been
brought in contact.   However unjust such prejudices may be
deemed in theory, wisdom and prudence require that they should
be so far recognized and respected by legislators as to avoid rash
attempts at measures that might serve only to inflame and
strengthen them.  Although we cannot hope for the entire correction of many of the evils under which we now labor, yet time
will materially modify them, and much may be safely trusted to
its silent but effective operation. Hasty and inconsiderate action
should be avoided; and above all things, should the delicate
questions evolved from the new relations among, us be kept from
the arena of party politics.
160 
REPLY TO THE FREEDIEN'S ADDRESS.
"There are, at present, in North Carol;ina, some real bonds of
attachment between the two races. Families have been brought
ulp and nurtured together under our former domestic relations,faithful servants have gained the esteem and confidence of their
former masters, and possess and reciprocate tender feelings of affection from those whose infancy they have wvatched, and in the
pleasures and sports of whose childhood they have participated.
Their services and sympathy in affliction are remembered, and
the dearxt memories of the dead are associated and shared with
them. From such ties, and from the common feelings of interest,
justice, and humanity, more is to be hoped for their improvement
and welfare than from the assertion of impracticable claims for
social and political rights or from the aid of those whose interference is likely to be regarded with jealousy and met with resentment.  We deplore the premature introduction of any schemes
that may disturb the operations of these kindly feelings, or inflame the inherent social prejudice that exists against the colored
race. The necessary legislation should be conceived in a spirit
of perfect fairness and justice, and in full and unreserved conformity to existing relations; but it should be suited to the actual
condition of the parties, and be aimed rather to their material
and moral welfare, and to the general peace and prosperity of
the State, than to any theoretical scheme of social and political
equality.
"Those of our laws that are inapplicable to the changed relation of master and slave, and those that are in contravention of it,
should be repealed. Miany new laws are now indispensably necessary to meet the present condition of things; and these should be
drawn with great care and with the most mature consideration.
"The committee therefore recommends that the Provisional
Governor of the State be requested to appoint and constitute a
commission of three gentlemen, eminent for legal ability, to propose and submit to the consideration of the Legislature at its next
session a system of laws upon the subject of freedmen, and to
designate such laws or parts of laws now in force as should be
repealed in order to conform the statutes of the State to the orlinance of this Convention abolishing the institution of slavery.
"For the committee,
"JOHN POOL, Chairman."
K
,Irli 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
There is one admission in this report for which we may
give sincere and heartfelt thanks: "In consequence of his
late condition as a slave, the freedman is ignorant, careless,
improvident," etc. See how, in an instant, a word of manly
truth knocks away all the texture of that web of sophistries
about the natural inferiority of the negro!
It was hardly possible for the Convention itself to revise
the entire code of laws relating to the colored man; and
therefore it was best to ask the Governor "to appoint and
constitute a commission of three persons, eminent for legal
ability, to prepare and submit to the consideration of the
Legislature, at its next session, a system of laws upon the
subject of freedmen." The injustice of the action lies in the
fact that neither the Convention as a body, nor any delegate
as an individual, was wise enough to see that there must be
no laws for white men, no laws for black men, but only laws
for all men alike.
In the Freedmen's Convention, something was one day
said about the ignorance of the negro, and one of the members repeated the remark of an ex-Rebel, to the effect that
"the nigger has no business to talkl of his'rights under the
Constitution,' for he don't know what the word means."  "It
may be," said MIr. Isham Sweat, barber at Fayetteville, with
a passionate burst of eloquence, -  "it may be that we are so
ignorant we don't know what the word' Constitution' means;
but none of us are so ignorant that we don't know what the
principle of justice means!"  Is the North less wise than
this negro barber who stands and pleads for his people?
162 
THE SPIRIT OF THE CONVENTION.
XVIII.
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION AND THE MINOR WORK OF
THE CONVENTION.
RALEIGH, October 14, 1865.
I HAVE already referred to the fact that, while travelling
in the western part of the State, I was often told that
the Convention would of course be strongly Union, because
the Rebel element did not vote, - shielding itself behind the
assertion that the "authorities," either military or provisional,
would not allow Southern men to run as delegates. I received these reports as to the sullen character of a considerable portion of the people with much allowance; but
conversation with the officers on duty here, and with the
members and hangers-on of the Convention, has convinced
me that they are substantially true.
If "hatred of Secession" and "love of the Union" were
synonymous phrases, there would be cause for sincere rejoicing in the position of affairs here; for the action of the
Conrvention in respect to the secession ordinance was something more than respectable,- it was admirable. The passage of the ordinance declaring that it had always been null
and void was not, it is true, received with any manifestation
of gratification, though, considering the crazy joy on the passage of the ordinance of May, 1861, some common congratulation would have been admissible.
The spirit of the Convention, however, was none the less
unmistakable for this omission.  The delegates, as a body,
took a sort of savage delight in insisting on the yeas and
nays on every vote respecting the matter.  "We'll get these
d-d Secesh on the record good and strong," said a delegate
of the Smith family to me. They boast of their soldiers,
and of the heroic record of the North Carolina regiments,
163 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
but they very rarely indorse the cause for which those soldiers fought. They are prolific in assertion to the effect
that the "geographical position" of the State forced her into
an alliance with the Confederacy.  "Mly situation, and not
my will, consents," appositely quoted one delegate; and they
are at much pains to convince strangers that, whatever it
may be necessary to do with respect to other States, North
Carolina should at once be restored to her old position in
the government.   If this impalpable something  that calls
itself Unionism had for even one of its component parts a
broad love of impartial justice, there might be reason for
untroubled hope of the future. As it is, there needs to be
careful discrimination between the little leaven and the
whole lump; and it will be a sad thing if the President pins
his faith to everything in North Carolina that throws stones
at Secession and boasts of its Unionism.
The Convention has substantially closed its labors, though
it will probably hold a couple of brief sessions next week.
I have reported its action in respect to the freed people, the
slavery question, and the secession ordinance; and there
remains for me now only the duty of very briefly showing
its record in regard to other matters of minor general interest.
With characteristic observance of the order in which their
work should be done, the delegates, immediately after passing the slavery ordinance, took up that for re-establishing
civil government, which was amended, briefly debated, and
then passed. It provides for an election of Governor, members of the Legislature, and representatives in Congress.
All persons, otherwise qualified according to the Constitution now existing, will be allowed to vote who have taken
the amnesty oath prescribed by President Lincoln, or that
prescribed by President Johnson, and, if of the excepted
classes, have been pardoned. An effort was made to so
amend the ordinance as to allow all to vote, whether they
164: 
THE MINOR WORK OF THE CONVENTION.
have or have not been pardoned, and have or have not
taken an amnesty oath. The mover of this section professed
extreme loyalty, but that did n't carry his amendment, which
was tabled without a division.
A proposition to abolish the property qualification for
members of the General Assembly was considerably debated, but finally defeated by a very decisive vote; as was
also, at a later stage of the proceedings, an ordinance creating the office of Lieutenant-Governor.
After much debate, an ordinance was passed vacating all
State offices which, since May 20, 1861, have been held by
persons who have taken an oath inconsistent with the official oath to support the Constitution of the United States;
and the Legislature is directed to cause them to be filled,
according to law, at its first session.
The Convention spent the best part of two days upon the
ordinance giving force to proceedings since the passage of
the so-called secession ordinance. All laws enacted since
that day are ratified, except such as relate to slavery, and
such as are incompatible with the Constitution of the United
States and with the allegiance of the State to the general
government.  Validity is given to all judicial proceedings,
all contracts, all marriages, and the acts of all civil officers
of the State, except as hereinbefore recited. No civil or
military officer of the State or the so-called Confederate
States shall be held liable for the proper discharge of any
duty imposed on him by any authority purporting to be a
law of the State or Confederate States governments.
There is, on the part of many delegates, an extreme nervousness on the subject of the Congressional representation.
"I think we ought to take up the ordinance redistricting the
State as soon as possible," says Colonel  Love, "so that
gentlemen who are likely to be sent to Congress may have
full time for preparation."  "The passage of this resolution," says the venerable delegate from Caswell, Mr. Brown,
165 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"will, in my humble opinion, be of great aid to our Congressional delegation."  "It is of the utmost importance," says
Mlr. Boyden, "that you declare the secession ordinance null
and void, now and always, so that no just claim may be set
up for refusing admission to our representatives in Congress."  "It is a part of the public policy of the State that
our Congressional delegation should be in Washington on
the first day of the session," says Mr. Moore, who would like
to have it appear that he speaks for Governor Holden.
Pass this as it comes from the committee,"- the ordinance
regarding secession,   " and you take the game out of the
hands of the Northern fanatics when our senators and representatives apply for admission into Congress," says a delegate from one of the back counties.  "They must demand,
and insist upon having, all the rights and privileges now
given to the members from Mlassachusetts or any other
State," responds another.
The ordinance redistricting the State was therefore, at the
proper time, taken up and promptly passed. The new districts are as follows, by counties: -
First District,- Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans,
Gates, Chowan, Hertford, Northampton, Halifax, Martin, Bertie,
Washington, Tyrrell, Hyde, and Beaufort.
Second District,- Pitt, Craven, Jones, Lenoir, Wayne, Green,
Edgecombe, Wilson, Onslow, Carteret, Duplin, and New Hanover.
Third District,- Brunswick, Columbus, Bladen, Sampson,
Cumberland, Robeson, Richmond, Harnett, Moore, Montgomery,
Anson, and Stanley.
Fourth District,- Warren, Franklin, Nash, Granville, Orange,
Wake, Johnston, and Chatham.
Fifth District, - Alanlance, Randolph, Guilford, Rockingham,
Davidson, Forsyth, Stokes, Surry, Person, and Casweli.
Sixth District, — Rowan, Cabarrus, Union, Mecklenburg, Iredell, Davie, Yadkin, Wilkes, Alexander, Catawba, Lincoln, and
Gaston.
Seventh District, - Ashle, Alleghany, Watauga, Yancey, Mitch
166 
FINAL JUDGMENT OF THE CONVENTION.
ell, McDowell, Burke, Rutherford, Cleveland, Polk, Henderson,
Buncombe, Madison, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Cherokee, and
Caldwell.
The "basis of representation"' question with respect to
the lower house of the Legislature, which excited so much
debate at Columbia, could get attention from but one delegate here,- Love, of Jackson County, - who was allowed
to make a speech of an hour's length in favor of making
that basis the white population of the State. It remains as
heretofore, i. e. "Federal population, - that is, all free persons and three fifths of all other persons."
The attendance on the daily sessions of the Convention
has been very meagre. I doubt if one hundred persons of
the resident population have, from first to last, looked into
the chamber.
I have only to add, further, that the ordinance declaring
secession null and void, and that prohibiting slavery, are to
be submitted to a vote of the people of the State.
For my final judgment with regard to the Convention, I
adopt the words of Judge Howard, and say that I have
"more faith in those who, without making loud professions
of what they have always felt and believed, honestly give
up all their past ideas, and avow themselves henceforth
good citizens of the United States, than in those whose fierce
zeal for the Union slumbered during all the years of secession, and only broke out in the hour of the triumph of the
IT nion cause," - or, in other words, a conquered Rebel will,
to my thinking, be much more easily converted into a good
citizen than most of these North Carolina Unionists.
POSTSCRIPT.
The Convention was in session sixteen days. At the
beginning of the second day's session, it ordered the United
States flag to be raised on the State House. At the beginning
167 
THE SOUIJTH SLNCE THE WAR.
of the last day's session, the President made the announcement
that the order had not been executed because no flag could
be obtained in the city.  Possibly the strict letter of the
order required that one should be bought, though the delegate who offered the resolution supposed one would be borrowed of the military. A hearty acquiescence in its spirit
would have suggested an application to the general commanding the department, whose head-quarters are here, or
would have permitted the acceptance of one of those tendered to the Convention through individual delegates.  The
facts in the case are somewhat suggestive when coupled
with the professed Unionism of the Convention.
When I left Raleigh, it was generally understood that the
Convention would not take any decisive action in respect to
the war-debt question. There was an extreme sensitiveness in regard to the matter. The secession ordinance had
been emphatically declared null and void from the beginning; but I believe the debt incurred in the endeavor to
support that ordinance would have been assumed, had it
been possible to get a vote upon the direct proposition! It
was comparatively easy to repudiate an act which the result
of the war had already repudiated; but the debt was a question of pocket instead of principle, and very many of the
so-called Union leaders were unable to see its illegality.
On the second day's session a resolution was offered calling on the Governor for information as to the specie-value
of the war-debt of the State at the time when incurred. It
was a simple inquiry; but the purpose of the Convention to
take no steps at all in relation to the matter was apparent
enough by its almost unanimous vote in sending the resolution to the table.
On the fourth day, a resolution was offered asking the
Provisional Governor if he had any information or intimation
from the President as to the course that should be pursued
by the State relative to the debt contracted for the prose
168 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
cution of the war.  The purpose of the Convention to assumne this debt was further apparent by the decisive manner
in which it rejected this resolution.
On the fifth day there came an ordinance declaring that
no tax should be laid, and no money appropriated, to pay
any part of this debt. It was sent to its grave without
debate.
On the sixth day, Mr. Settle introduced an ordinance providing for the payment of all just debts of the State, and
also declaring that no part of the Rebel war debt should be
paid. He asked that this might be made the special order
for the following day, but was pressed to allow it to go to
the Finance Committee. To this he would not seriously
object, he said, but gentlemen might as well understand,
first as last, that this war-debt question could not be ignored,
-they could not stifle debate, nor could they bury his
ordinance under a committee's table. The motion to refer
to the Finance Committee prevailed.
On the seventh day an ordinance was offered which provided for issuing bonds in payment of the State debt incurred before the war. As no provision was made for the
war debt, the ordinance practically denied the validity
thereof, and it was tabled by 59 to 40.
On the eighth day the Finance Committee made report of
3Ir. Settle's ordinance, -recommending that no action be
taken by the Convention on the war-debt question. Mr.
Settle made a strenuous effort to get the rule suspended so
that immediate action might be taken on the report, but was
defeated by 60 to 47.
On  the ninth day there was further effort to get action on this question; but while a motion was pending to
that effect, an adjournment was carried by 57 to 53. The
position of affairs at this juncture was such that this vote
was regarded as being much nearer a test-vote than any
other that had been taken. It seemed to indicate very
$
169 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
clearly that the Convention meant to do nothing that could
jeopardize the prospects of the war debt for ultimate payment.
On the fourteenth day it was agreed that the Convention
should adjourn sine die on the evening of the following day.
Nothing had been done about the war debt since the ninth
day, and everybody understood that nothing would be done.
There were, to be sure, a dozen or more delegates anxious
to settle the questions connected therewith; but, on the other
hand, there was a strong party, including several of those
who were foremost in the effort to annul the secession ordinance, which openly favored the assumption of that debt,
and another large party which chose only to be known as
opposed to any action in regard thereto. The pressure of
the lobby was very strong. Its representative men were
anxious to secure a formal acknowledgment of the validity
of the debt, but were reasonably well content with defeating
all efforts to formally annul it; and, on the evening of this
fourteenth day, the whole lobby gleefully chuckled at its
success.
On the fifteenth day, early in the morning hour, the resolution appointing a committee to determine what part of the
debt of the State incurred since May 20, 1861, was for war
purposes, what for other purposes, the best means of dis charging the same, and of providing a sound currency, was
called up, and tabled by a strong majority. This was the
last measure touching the debt before the Convention, and
its death was acknowledged to be the final stroke of victory
in favor of the assumptionists.
An ordinance of local interest was taken up. The real
Unionists of the Convention were not at all pleased with the
situation; but the sentiment of the house had been so often
declared, that they were determined to make no further ef fort on the debt question. At this juncture, and during the
debate on this local ordinance, a nmessage was announced
170 
THE WAPR-DEBT QUESTION.
from the Provisional Governor. The delegate on the floor
gave way, and the message was read. It proved to be a
simple announcement that he had received from the President the following telegram:
"WASHIsmGToN, October 18, 1865.
"WV. W. HOLDEN, ProLisional Governor:
Every dollar of the debt created to aid the Rebellion against
the United States should be repudiated filially and forever. The
great mass of the people should not be taxed to pay a debt to aid
in carrying on a Rebellion to which they in fact, if left to themselves, were opposed. Let those who have given their means for
the obligations of the States look for payment to that power they
tried to establish in violation of law, Constitution, and the will
of the people. They must meet their fate. It is their misfortune,
and cannot be recognized by the people of any State professing
themselves loyal to the government of the United States, and in
the Union. I repeat, that the loyal people of North Carolina
should be exonerated from the payment of every dollar of indebtedness created to aid in carrying on the Rebellion. I trust
and hope that the people of North Carolina will. wash their hands
of everything that partakes in the slightest degree of the Rebellion which has been so recently crushed by the strong armn of
the government in carrying out the obligations imposed by the
Constitution of the United States.
S   ANDREW JOHNSON,
" President of tIe United States."
The scene which followed the reading of this Presidential
message was extraordinary. The score of faithful Union
men applauded it, and one excited delegate exclaimed,
"Hurrah for Andy Johnson!"  Then silence fell upon the
house, and every man looked to his neighbor for guidance.
MIr. Conigland, of Halifax County, was the first to speak,
and he announced himself as a free and independent man.
"Mliy conscience is my own, and I shall allow no earthly
government to control my thoughts or form my opinions."
LIr. Settle moved and carried a postponement of the subjectmatter of the message till evening.
171 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
At the beginning of the evening session a motion to rescind the order fixing the hour of adjournment was carried
by 76 to 26; and Mr. Settle then moved to take up the ordinance he introduced on the sixth day of the session. An
amendment  was  immediately offered, providing  that the
whole question in regard to the assumption of the war
debt be left to a vote of the people. An excited debate of
two hours followed, in which such men  as Boyden, Moore,
Winston, and Caldwell, all avowed Union men, took strong
ground against the action which the President indicated
would be advisable; while Settle and Phillips were the
only delegates of any influence who  spoke on the other
side. Finally, Mr. Boyden - the leader of the fight against
the secession ordinance - moved to lay the ordinance under
consideration, as well as all questions connected therewith,
on the table for the balance of the session. This defiant
proposition was lost by a vote of 25 to 80, and the Convention adjourned.
On the sixteenth and last day the contest was renewed,
and continued for four hours. Great indignation was manifested at the turn which affairs had taken; and it was charged
that the President's telegram came at the instigation of Governor Holden, and was intended for his benefit in the coming
elections. During the day numerous amendments to the
Settle ordinance were offered and urged, but none of them
were accepted. Finally, Mr. Moore of Raleigh, chairman
of the Business Committee, and therefore virtually the leader
of the Convention, again proposed, notwithstanding the advice of the President, to leave the whole matter to the people. This proposition, strange as it may seem,- and in
view of the record of the Convention on the secession ordinance question it seems very strange,- this proposition was
only defeated by four majority, the vote being 46 to 50.
The evening session showed that this was the final effort
of the assumptionists. They made no more mnotions for
1 i-2 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
amendment, and the Settle ordinance was passed by a weak
viva voce vote, - only a few voices being heard in the nlegative, though about a dozen delegates afterward signed a protest against the action of the Convention. The ordinance as
passed is as follows:
"Be it declared and ordained by the Deleyates of the State of
.North Carolina in Convention assenmbled, and it is hereby declared
and ordained, That it shall be the duty of the General Assembly
of the State, so soon as is practicable, to provide for the payment
of all debts and obligations created or incurred by the State,
other than in aid of the late Rebellion.
"Be it further declared and ordained, That all debts and obligations created or incurred by the State in aid of the Rebellion, directly or indirectly, are void; and no General Assembly of this
State shall have power to assume or provide for the payment of
the same, or any portion thereof; nor shall any General Assembly
of this State have power to assume or provide for the payment
of any portion of the debts or obligations created and incurred,
directly or indirectly, by the late so-called Confederate States,
or by its agents, or under its authority."
XIX.
AFFAIRS IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA.
GOLDSBORO, October 16, 1865.
T is the ambition of Provisional Governor IGolden to be
elected to the Governorship of the State by the people. The central counties will, however, pretty generally
vote against him, I judge, in the coming canvass. Ile is
intensely hated by the secession element, which will more
readily accept almost any other man. The loyalty of the
173 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
State is in the western part, the discontent is in the centre,
the submission is on the sea-coast.
WVho will be put into the field against Governor Holden
for the executive office cannot yet be certainly said. Efforts
are making to bring out State Treasurer Jonathan Worth,
and they promise to be successful. His record for Unionism
is as good, at least, as Holden's; but he favors the payment
of the Rebel war debt, and would be voted for by all the
Secessionists, - not that they love him, but that they hate
Holden. Sir. Worth is a small man, of moderate abilities,
sterling honesty, and perfectly unassuming manners, whose
integrity is an honorable by-word, but whose personal bearing would not particularly dignify the Governorship. The
only thing to fear from his election will be that the Secessionists may control him, and so control State affairs. If
he is strong enough to keep out of their hands after being
elected by their votes, he will, I think, make a very fair
Governor.
I had a long talk this morning with a Smithfield man.
He said Holden was hated by one class of people and feared
by the other. lie did n't believe in electing such men to
office. He himself was just as loyal as anybody now, but
last winter he was as big a Rebel as there was in Johnston
County. He did n't take no'count of these men who were
sich good Union men all to once. He meant to mind the
laws now, and was willin' to ask Andy Johnson's pardon;
but he did n't pretend that he was any better'n anybody
else. He reckoned he'd got to eat dirt some; but if he
knew himself right well, he should eat it in the easiest way
he could, and that would n't be by voting for Holden.
A Fayetteville merchant whom I met told me that he
should have no hope of the future if the Black Republicans
carried the day in the forthcoming Northern elections. He
considered it essential that they should be overthrown now
and forever. They forced the South into the war, and the
174 
THE CONSERVATIVE PLATFORM.
South would hardly believe the North wished peace unless
they were beaten at the ballot-box.
I asked him if it seemed necessary that the North should
consult the will of the South in respect to its own State
officers.
Well, he thought it was the duty of the North to show
that she really desired the South to come back into the
Union, and he was certain that the election to office of men
avowedly hostile to the South would not indicate any such
desire.
But, I said, what would you have?  What general policy
does it appear to you we of the North should adopt?
He would n't dictate, he answered; but the North ought
to rise above passion and elect conservative men.
The conversation reminded me of a little speech made
last week in the Convention at Raleigh. During the debate on the secession ordinance, Honorable Bedford Brown,
once in Congress from this State, introduced a resolution
declaring that the war had forever settled that a State has
no Constitutional right to secede. After that ordinance had
been declared null and void, he urged the passage of his
resolution as an appropriate sequel to the action on the
other question, and said he thought it would much help the
chances of the State before Congress next winter. He called
attention to the fact that the idea of the resolution is in General Slocum's opening speech to the New York Democracy,
and remarked that he believed it would furnish a common
ground of brotherhood for all conservative men.    He indorsed General Slocum as eminently national and soundly
conservative, and expressed the hope that he might be
elected, as that would be a triumph of conservative views
full of promise for the South. His resolution went to the
table, however, as being needless; and the great conservative party lost the benefit of its passage.
Two gentlemen of this town favored me with their views
175 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
at some length last evening in regard to the duty of the
South and the duty of the nation in the present emergency.
They were clearly of the opinion that the Southern representatives should be admitted to their seats at the assembling of Congress; that the President should revoke the
twenty thousand dollar clause in his amnesty proclamation;
and that the South should be relieved for at least five years
fi'om the payment of any national taxes.  They thought it
very cruel in the North to doubt the word of the South
when she said, on her honor, that she accepted the results of
the war, and would in good faith abide by them, and hinted
that the South might wish she had not so readily given up
the position she could have taken at the close of the war.
I asked the landlord of my hotel if there were many
Northern men in this section of the State.  "Not many,"
he said, "outside the large towns."
"Is there any feeling of hostility to them that would
make it dangerous for them to try to live here?"
"0O no, they can live in Goldsboro well enough, and we
should like to have a hundred on'em come in here at
once."
"But how about living in the country?"
"Well, there are some towns where they could live; but
the planters don't like'em very well, I reckon."
I asked him if the leading men of the various counties
could n't see that it would be for the interest of the State
to encourage the influx of Northern spirit and labor and
capital.
Yes, he thought all the best men saw that, and he did n't
know as there was any trouble about such men. But the
common classes was another thing, and they were n't fond
of the Yankees.  He  believed any Northern man  would
get along well enough if't was knowed that he was
befriended by the best men in his neighborhood, however.
176 
THE POOR WHITES.
I am certain that there can be no lower class of people
than the North Carolina "clay-eaters," -  this being the lo cal name for the poor whites. I have looked into the cab ins of not a few of them, and have made inquiries concern ing them of a considerable number of persons. I state a
deliberate conclusion wlhen I say that the average negroes
are superior in force and intellect to the great majority of
these clay-eaters. Many of them - all of those not married
-must be simply called vagabonds. They are generally
without fixed home and without definite occupation. They
are always thinly clad, their habitations are mere hovels,
they are entirely uneducated, and many of them are hardly
above beasts in their habits. Very few families have fifty
dollars' worth of property of any kind. The men live most
of the time in the woods, and generally keep one or two
dogs and own a cheap rifle.  The women are slatternly and
utterly without any idea of decency or propriety; they cultivate a little corn, and sometimes a little patch of cow-peas,
collards, or sweet potatoes. The whole class is bigoted and
superstitious to the last degree; they generally believe in
evil spirits, but rarely in a Divine Father. They are lazy
and thriftless, mostly choose to live by begging or pilfering,
and are more unreliable as farm hands than the worst of the
negroes.
I find here as everywhere the complaint that the free
negro will not work.  There seems considerable demand for
labor, yet, strange as it may seem, the people are warm colonizationists.  They talk much about importing white labor,
whichl, of course, they can't get till they put it on such footin7 as it commands in the North. The idea of everybody is
that labor must be kept out of good society; and so I hear
much assertion to the effect that German laborers can be
imported who will work for about ten or twelve dollars per
month, and occupy the cabins which the negroes have vacated.
177
8 *
L 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The fact, if not the name, of slavery remains in many of
these central counties. An officer in our army, for twelve
years a resident of the State, tells me that many of the people hope some system of peonage or apprenticeship will be
established as soon as the State gets full control of her affairs; and an officer of the Freedmen's Bureau says that in
some counties, from all he can learn, negroes are whipped
almost as much now as ever.
"The war," says the Raleigh Sentinel in a late issue,
"has settled a fact, that African slavery or involuntary servitude shall no longer exist in the United States, and we
accept it as a fixed fact; but the principle whether African
slavery is right or wrong, whether it is best, wisest for both
races, that the slaves should be free, or whether it is just
and right to the former slaveholders that they shall be free,
or whether the slaves are of right entitled to be free, these
are still open questions."
A Johnston County man told in my hearing, and with a
great deal of gusto, how he managed his negroes.   He
could n't whip them, he said, because they'd sneak off to
the provost marshal and complain of him.   "But I'll be
d-d if I don't get even with the cusses when they try to
ride ahead; I jest tell'em I'm in for a fight, and then I go
into'em for about ten minutes; they understand it, an' come
down on thar knees right sudden." He told this with plain
indications that he considered himself smart in thus retaining the essential feature of slavery.
A Moore County man whom I met at Raleigh had much
to say of the marital relations of the negroes. He believed
two thirds of the men would abandon their wives whenever
the notion took them, and he doubted if one woman in six
was true to her husband. He had no idea that any law
could be made to reach this people in this regard, and expected their condition in respect to virtue would be worse
hereafter than when they were slaves. He told me a story of a
178 
THE FREEDMEN.
negro who came to him, said he had two wives in Wilmington, but wanted to be married to a third for the war or so
long as the Yankees held that city.  This seemed to him
such conclusive evidence of the negro's unfitness for freedom,
that, though it proved nothing, I was glad to be able to
match his story with one from the adjoining county of Harnett, to the effect that a white man, having a wife in Virginia, had applied to a magistrate to be married to another
woman for forty days, and had tendered a bushel of sweet
potatoes in payment for the job.
There is much hostility to the Freedmen's Bureau,- more
hereabouts than I found in the western part of the State.
The people claim that it "interferes with the regular operations of labor."  I get this phrase from several different
persons: just what it means is more than I can tell. I
judge, however, from all I hear, that the farmers and small
planters are disposed to retain their old relations to the negroes, and that the Bureau is acting as the black man's next
friend.
Not a few persons seem to me to be trying to find a pretext for a general onslaught upon the negroes. They charge
that the blacks are pretty generally organizing, and in many
of the lower counties are drilling semi-weekly. I am not
able to satisfy myself that there is any truth in these charges.
That the negroes hold weekly meetings in some neighborhoods many of the delegates in the Freedmen's Convention
told me; but they assured me that they were always of a
social or religious character, and I have neither seen nor
heard anything that causes me to doubt their word. Most
of the blacks whom I meet seem to me unusually well informed as to the situation so far as it affects their race, and
exceedingly anxious to bear themselves with propriety and
decorum before all men.
As I have already said, there are the usual complaints
about the idleness of the negroes. Some of' them have, to
179 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
be sure, left their old homes; but I estimate that the number who have wandered away does not exceed one tenth of
the aggregate.  The others are, for the most part, quietly at
work on the plantations and farms.  "From our experience
and observation," says the editor of the Progress, of Raleigh,
a native, and a former slaveholder, "we believe that by
treating the blacks justly, and paying them promptly, more
will be produced, by good management, under the free-labor
system than was under the old slave system."
XX.
SUIMMARY OF THREE WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS IN NORTH
CAROLINA.
WILMINGTON, October 17, 1865.
PINDLING  of legs, round of shoulders, sunken of
chest, lank of body, stooping of posture, narrow of face,
retreating of forehead, thin of nose, small of chin, large of
mouth,- this is the native North-Carolinian as one sees him
outside the cities and large towns. There is insipidity in his
face, indecision in his step, and inefficiency in his whole
bearing. His house has two rooms and a loft, and is meanly
furnished,- one, and possibly two, beds, three or four chairs,
half a dozen stools, a cheap pine table, an old spinningwheel, a water-bucket and drinking gourd, two tin washbasins, half a dozen tin platters, a few cooking utensils, and
a dozen odd pieces of crockery. Paint and whitewash and
wall-paper and window-curtains are to him needless luxuries.   His  wife is leaner, more  round-shouldered, more
sunken of chest, and more pinched of face than her husband.  He  " chaws" and she  "dips."  The  children of
these two are large-eyed, tow-headed urchins, alike igno
180 
THE COMMO.N NORTH-CAROLINIAN.
rant of the decencies and the possibilities of life. In this
house there is often neither book nor newspaper; and, what
is infinitely worse, no longing for either. The day begins
at sunrise and ends at dark; its duties are alike devoid of
dig,nity and mental or moral compensation. The man has
a small farm, and once owned six or eight negroes. How
the family now lives, the propping hands of the negroes
being taken away, is a mystery, even if one remembers the
simple cheapness of mere animal life.
I am not speaking either of the white resident of the
cities or of the "poor white," technically so named, but of
the common inhabitant of the country, - the man who pays
a tax and votes, but never runs for office; who was a private
in the Rebel army, but never anything more; who hates
the Yankees as a matter of course, but has no personal illwill toward them; who believes in the Divine right of slavery, but is positive that a free negro cannot be made to
work. He is hospitable enough in words and manner, but
expects you to pay extravagantly in greenbacks or liberally
in silver for a seat at his table and the use of his odd bed.
His larder is lean, and his cookery is in the last degree
wretched. He tenders "' apple-jack," as an evidence of
good-will, and wonders in a feeble way how a man can live
who don't drink it at least half a dozen times a day. He
likes to talk, and rarely has any work that prevents him from
hanging on the fence to chat with the chance traveller who
asks the road; but his conversation runs in an everlasting
circle round the negro, with au occasional pause for the
relation of personal adventures in the war. He receives two
or three letters per year, perhaps, and wonders why a man
should take a daily newspaper.  He troubles himself very
little about schools or education, but likes to go to meeting,
and thinks himself well informed as to matters of theology.
He believes the "abolishioners" brought on the war; but
he does n't love Jeff Davis or Governor Vance. He " allers
181 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
dun hansumly by his niggers," and thinks them the "most
ongratefullest creeturs on the face of the yerth."
The complexion of these country residents is noticeable,
and suggests many inquiries.  If you say that half the men
and nearly all the women are very pale, you strike at the
matter, but fail to fairly hit it. Their whiteness of skin is
simply the whiteness of ordinary tallow. It is sallowness,
with a suggestion of clayeyness.  Unquestionably soap and
water and crash towels would improve the appearance, but I
doubt if they would give any bloom to the cheek. The skin
seems utterly without vitality, and beyond the action of any
restorative stimulants: it has a pitiful and repulsive deathin-life appearance. I am told the climate is in fault, but my
judgment says the root of the matter is in the diet of the
people. The range of eatables is exceedingly narrow, and
swine's flesh constitutes at least half the food of all classes
outside the towns and cities; while the consumption of grease
-of fat in one form or another - would, I am sure, astonish even an Arctic explorer. The whole economy of life
seems radically wrong, and there is no inherent energy
which promises reformation.
The amount of tobacco consumed by the people is beyond
all calculation. I hardly exaggerate in saying that at least
seven tenths of all persons above the age of twelve years use
it in some form. Nearly every man and boy smokes or
chews, and very many of them do both, while the country
women chew and smoke to some extent, and women of most
classes "dip."  When I saw old Solon Shingle come into
the witness-box to tell the story about his famous "bar'l o'
apple sass" I thought the manner in which he disposed of
his quid of tobacco the nastiest piece of business I should
ever see. I was mistaken. To see a man take it from his
mouth and put it in his hat when he goes to breakfast is by
no means uncommon. I have even seen men lay it under
the edge of their plate at dinner; and one of the leading
182 
S.NUFF AND TOBACCO.
delegates in the Convention held an immense quid between
the thumb and finger of the hand with which he abundantly
gesticulated during a ten-minutes speech!  Could nastiness
go further? And do not these things mark the civilization
of a people? In South Carolina, though seeing all classes,
I did not once observe a white woman "dipping" snuff;
but in this State I have seen scores, - I should scarcely exaggerate if I said hundreds.  I saw them in Charlotte, the
first town at which I stopped, within an hour after my
arrival; and have seen them in every place I have visited
since,-  "dipping" in the porches of their own houses, on
the streets, and twice in the public parlors of hotels.  If
barbaric life has a filthier and more disgusting custom than
this, may I be excused from seeing it.
The labor system of the State is not so badly disorganized
as that of South Carolina, but it is thoroughly demoralized.
One sees here more white men in trades there almost given
up to negroes, but he also sees negroes in trades here from
which they are excluded there. The number of grown men,
mniddle-aged men, who have no ostensible business but lounging and whiskey-drinking, is much greater in this State than
in that. It is the complaint of papers in all sections of the
State, that there never before were so many idle men,- vagrants, consumers, non-producers, non-taxpayers. The chief
pity of the matter, however, is, that they seem to have no
desire for work.  "And who makes so much fuss about the
negroes not working as these very white drones who hug the
street-corners, lounge about dram-shops, and trust to chance
for food and raiment?" asks one of the Raleigh papers, very
pertinently.  "We trust our law-makers will do all in their
power," adds another journal, "to compel the freedmen to
work for an honest living; but we consider it equally incumbent on them to take steps to reduce the amount of vagrancy
among the whites." These extracts are not from papers
edited by Northern or outside men, but the two writers are
183 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
men who have always lived in the State. The columns of
the Wilmington and Newbern papers, edited by new-comers,
bear witness, however, to the same state of facts.
It probably never will be settled whether the State did or
did not want to go out of the Union in May, 1861. That
she did not in December, 1860, nor in February, 1861, is
clear enough from the votes cast in those months; but the
condition of affairs had greatly changed by the following
May.  "My  situation, and not my will, consents," quoted
one delegate of the recent Convention in explanation of
North Carolina's course then.  I am  everywhere urged to
believe that the "geographical necessity" forced her out.  I
have heard that phrase so much since I came into the State,
that I should be tempted to consider it a sort of byword if
it were not used by sober men of mature years. While
many seem anxious that the stranger should believe the
State did not voluntarily secede, there are others who insist
that it was her matured will to go out in that fatal May.
" If she did not believe in the constitutional right of secession, she at least believed the time had come for a revolution," said a gentleman to me here last evening.  "The people desired the State to withdraw," said Delegate Ferrebee,
who was also delegate in the Secession Convention.  "I am
convinced that not two fifths of the people ever favored secession in any form," responded Delegate Pool. When doctors disagree, who shall decide?  " Iy calm and deliberate
judgment," said a leading lawyer to me in Charlotte, "is,
that about five eighths of the people of the State sustained
the action of the Secession Convention." On the other hand,
Delegate Boyden says, "I don't believe one third of them
ever sustained it." How shall an outsider come to a conclusion?
It needs to be contitnually borne in mind that much of the
"Unionism" of the State is mere personal bitterness toward
Jeff Davis, or Governor Vance, or some less noted secession
184 
NORTH CAROLINA UNIONTISIM.
leader. Thus, when the outspoken Raleigh Progress says,
"it is remarkable that treason has become so rampant and
defiant before the State has been readmitted," it is excited
because somebody has proposed to ask the President to con sider the utter worthlessness of old Governor Vance, and
decide if he may not just as well set him free. Yet the
Pirogriess is quite right when it remarks that "there must be
a great change of heart in North Carolina before Andrew
Johnson, as a candidate for the Presidency, can carry it
against any prominent leader of the Rebellion who may
oi)pose him"; and also quite right again when it says that
"the work of restoration in our State has been damaged by
attempts to conciliate men who deserve nothing but stripes."
The action of the Convention in respect to the secession
ordinance and the war debt pointedly marks the outlines of
the situation. Over thirty delegates declared by a solemn
vote that the ordinance never had any force whatever, and
then turned squarely about and put themselves on record in
favor of assuming the debt made in trying to sustain that
pretended ordinance!  In other words, a large number of
gentlemen who consider themselves insulted if called by ainy
other name than "Unionist" desire the State to pay her
share of the expense of the war for breaking up the Union.
Is there in this action an exhibition of what is technically
called "cheek "?  There is at least, as I have already said,
startling proof that words are very cheap, and that Unionism in name is one thing, and Unionism in fact quite another
thing.
The average sentiment of the State is very far from being
up to that of the Convention, as shown by its action on the
secession ordinance. Of course the declaration that it has
always been null and void will be sustained by the vote of
next December, but that vote will be smaller even than
that just cast in choosing the Convention. That there will
be further resistance to the government is not possible. I
185 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
do not forget that Delegate Phillips declared in debate that
"if the North and South ever again come into the position
they occupied in 1860 - 61, blood will be again spilled"; nor
do I forget that another delegate said he knew men of position who declared themselves "ready for furthei trial of the
present issue, if England and France would recognize the
confederacy"; yet against these signs of the hour I set the
declaration of Uncle Nat Boyden, "Neither principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor life,
nor death, nor any other creature, shall hereafter separate
us from the sisterhood of States!"  That any possible separation may be prevented, we need only to help the Union
men of the State. That the average sentiment of her people may be brought up to the best sentiment of the Convention, we need to make haste slowly in the work of reconstruction.
The condition of the negro is in some respects worse and
in others better than in South Carolina. He is in such minority here that he cannot enforce his natural rights so easily
as he does there; but, on the other hand, because of that
same fact, the essential natural rights are generally more
readily granted to him here than there. The cold hunkerism of this people, however, stands immovably in his way,
and gives him little chance. It is greatly to his credit that
he has not been seized by such discontent as prevails below.
In the extreme western part of the State he got uneasy and
drifted over the line and off toward Charleston; and in the
eastern part he must needs go down to Newbern and Wilmington to find freedom.  Elsewhere, however, with local
exceptions, he is staying on the old place, and working at
the old tasks; and I am convinced that, in the main, he has
not giveri serious cause of complaint.
"The chief ambition of a wench seems to be to wear a
veil and carry a parasol," said a ladylike-appearing woman
at the hotel in Salisbury. The mistress of the hotel in
186 
VEIL! AND PARASOLS.
Charlotte, at which chance travellers are fleeced at the rate
of four dollars per day regular charges, and another dollar
for extras, complained that "the nasty niggers must have a
parasol when they ha'n't got no shoes." One of two misses
who passed me on the street one day in Raleigh was scold ing because her girl had stolen her veil, and she added,
finally, "She got so crazy for it that ma had to get her
one." A gentlemen of this place with whom I spoke this
morning professed great amusement at a fact of his observa tion,   that full-blooded negro wenches carry a parasol and
wear a white handkerchief around the neck to protect them selves from the sun. An officer of the Freedmen's Bureau
told me the wearing of black veils by the young negro wo men had given great offence to the young white women, and
that there was a time earlier in the season when the latter
would not wear them at all. Does this matter of veils and
parasols and handkerchiefs seem a small one? Yet it is one
of serious import to the bitter, spiteful women whose passionate hearts nursed the Rebellion. I have, one way and
another, heard so much about it, that I am not at liberty to
suppose it a mere matter of local or temporary grievance.
Wretched negro girls, you of sprawling feet and immense
lips and retreating foreheads and coal-black color, cease from
your vagaries! Cease from such sore troubling of the placid
and miasmatic waters of good society!
"The nigger is crazy to ride,- to own an old mule and
an old cart, and to be seen driving through the streets," said
an ex-Rebel colonel to me at Charlotte.  " A  negro has
reached kingdom come," remarked my seat-mate in the wearisome ride last night from Goldsboro, "when he's got on
horseback." And it seems to give grave offence to the gentry of the State that the negro likes riding better than walking, that he will insist on buying a poor old mule and a poor
old cart and going into business for himself!  In this grief
is indirect proof that Sambo appreciates the situation, and is
anxious to be at work for himself as soon as possible.
187 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
To his average good disposition is due the fact that in
many counties slavery still exists as a fact even if abolished
as a name. I make this assertion only after much inquiry
into the condition of things.  The State is so large and
sparsely settled, and means of communicating with some sections are so unfavorable, that even the Freedmen's Bureau
has not yet found all the counties.  When the Freedmen's
Convention deliberately asks the general commanding the
department to give some of its members safe return to their
homes, there is such testimony to the existence of the old
condition of slavery unconsciously furnished as no amount
of negation can overweigh; and when one of the delegates
to the Constitutional Convention chuckles over the fact that
some of his constituents don't yet know that slavery is abolished, he furnishes proof unquestionable as to the actual situation.
"What my people wants first," said an intelligent colored
man to me at Salisbury, "what dey fust wants is de right to
be free." He compassed the whole case in few words. In
other States, where their number in proportion to the num
her of whites is greater than it is here, or where the revolution made by the war has been deeper, they assume and
hold this first right, to be free,-assume and hold it to their
harm, doubtless, in thousands of cases; but here, in many
counties, even this primary right is yet denied them. Some
of the delegates to the Freedmen's Convention were obliged
to sneak off from home in the night, and expected punishment on their return. The negro is no model of virtue, and
he deli,ghts in laziness and the excitement of the city; but,
on the whole, I think he is bearing himself very well in
North Carolina,-  with credit to himself and to his friends.
So far as I can learn, the intelligent colored men are
pleading very little as yet for the right of suffiage, but very
much for the right to testify in the courts.  " We  can live
without a vote, but not without the right to speak for our
188 
THE LABOR SYSTEM.
selves," said one of them to me at Greensboro, - anticipating the sentiment of the lame barber here who observed,
as he brushed my hair this morning, and emphasized his
words with a thump of my head for which he made a hundred apologies, "To be sure, sah, we wants to vote, but, sah,
de great matter is to git into de witness-box."  One of the
leading lawyers of the western part of the State, a former
District Attorney and member of the Legislature, told a
friend of mine that he knows no prominent member of the
bar who does not favor the admission to the courts of negro
evidence. I presume it is true that many leading men of
the State occupy this ground; but the distance between
these leading men and the common people is very great;
and I am sorrowfully certain that the latter are far from
being willing to allow the negro to be heard in court in his
own behalf.
" We are too poor to educate our own children now," said
Delegate Settle; "and much as I wish for the education of
the negro, his help will have to come from the North at present." It is something to get a desire that the negro shall
be educated, - and Sir. Settle is one of those who want him
colonized. The North took AIr. Settle at his spirit before
he uttered his word, and this year has in operation, in various parts of the State, about fifty schools, under charge of
about sixty teachers, and embracing nearly five thousand
different pupils.  MIost of these teachers are ladies, not a
few of whom are from Massachusetts. The State Superintendent reports a good degree of progress, and the most
indifferent inquiry anywhere among the negroes develops a
living and grasping interest.
The labor system, as I have alreadv said. is in better
order than in South Carolina.  The  negroes are not, however, any better paid than there.  Where they workl for a
share of the crop they get from one fourth to one third.
Miany of them, though, are workling for regular wages,
189 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
six to eight dollars per month with board, and nine to
twelve dollars without board. The planters and farmers
rather pride themselves on the liberality of these wages;
but they are, of course, utterly insufficient for anything
more than bare support. There is less complaint here than
below that the negro fails to observe his contract. The local
county police does much to keep down disorder, and doubtless is somethling, of a terror to negroes of vicious tendencies
who would like to desert their work.
Yet it cannot be denied that there are conflicts between
employers and employed, and some careful and observant
officers tell me they are increasing because of the injustice
of some masters who strive to keep up the old authority of
slave days.  "It is generally known that the prejudice and
bitterness is increasing between the whites and the blacks,"
says one Raleigh paper; and " clashings between the races
are unfortunately becoming more and more frequent," responds Governor Holden's organ. The real question of the
hour is neither one of suffrage nor one of giving testimony,
but one of establishing the true relations of employer and
employed. The true course is luminously indicated by another paper of the State: "If the employers, and especially
the late slave-owners, will t;eat the blacks kindly and justly,
these troubles that now annoy us will soon pass away." Will
the white man be wise in season? For the negro, strong in
his longing for freedom, gropes blindly and passionately, and
will not be cheated of what the earth, and the very heavens
themselves, assure him is his right.
190 
THE FLORENCE STOCKADE.
XXI.
THE GREAT MIILITARY PRISON OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
WITHIN THE STOCKADE,
FLORENCE, October 19, 1865.
OES  it seem affectation that I date my letter from
"Within the Stockade "?  At least I write it there,
write it in my note-book, on my  knee, sitting on a block
of wood, in one of the hut houses built by the hands of
those who served the cause of Union and Liberty in the
prisons of secession and slavery, - write it to the accompaniment of glaring lightning and crashing thunder and
driving rain.  Will these mud  walls shelter me  through
the storm of this hot afternoon?   I cannot forget that
they have sheltered men who perilled vastly more than
ease and comfort; and as I look through the hole that
they called a "door," and see the acres of such barbaric
but sanctified habitations, I lift reverent heart of thanksgiving to Him who gave us the victory, and blessed the
struggle and suffering of that great army through whom
we have national unity and the assured promise of universal freedom.
Florence is a name rather than a place; or, say, a point
at which three railroads centre, rather than a town. There
is a hotel, and a church, and a machine-shop, and two socalled stores, and three bar-rooms, and twenty-five or thirty
residences, and a great pine forest. There is a long, broad
street; at one end of which is the hotel,- a somewhat pretentious two-story wood building, with a wide and lofty
piazza in front, and an ungainly tower in the centre. At
the farther end of the street are the stores and the machineshop. MIidway are the apothecary's, and the hospital, and a
vacant law office. Back of this street, in the pines, are the
191 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
dwellings which constitute the town. The three railroads
have a common starting-point just in front of the hotel.
Passengers from Wilmington to Charleston reach here
about seven in the evening, and leave about three in the
morning, after paying two dollars each for supper and lodging of a passably good character. Passengers from Charleston to Wilmington reach here at the same hour, leave at the
same time, and pay the same tax for the support of the
landlord. Those from Columbia get supper here, and are
taxed one dollar. Those for Cheraw are obliged to disburse
three dollars for supper, lodging, and breakfast. The town
is, therefore, a railroad eating-house, with sleeping-rooms
attached.
Situated at the intersection of the great cross-line of railroad with the great coast-line, about one hundred miles from
either WAVilmington or Charleston, and about seventy-five
miles from either the coast or Columbia, it was peculiarly
adapted for the location and safety of a prison.
Tile stockade is about a mile and a half north of east from
the hotel, about a third of a mile from the railroad, and near
the centre of a great opening in the pine forest, which is
locally known as "the old field."  The field is a sandy, rolling, fenceless, irregularly-shaped tract of five hundred acres,
more or less, which probably at some time formed the tillable portion of two or three plantations mostly given up to
turpentine and rosin making. The stockade is about thirtyfive rods wide north and south, and some seventy rods long
east and west; containing, perhaps, fifteen or sixteen acres.
Through the middle of this enclosure, fi'om north to south,
flows a little stream of water, five or six feet in wvidthl and
four or five inches in depth. It is a swiftly running stream,
and the water has a not unpleasant taste. From either end
the prison-pen slopes off to this brook,- making five or six
acres of low, marshy ground, lying principally east of the
stream, full of sink-holes and stagnant waters and mias
192 
THE FLORENCE STOCKADE.
matic odors and malarial influences, -the breeding-place
of agues and fevers and typhoids and rheumatic complaints,
-the rank and pestiferous home of disease and death, than
which hellish malignity  could scarcely have fashioned one
more fit to the purpose of that foul treason which laid its
foundation in slavery and sought to enthrone Rapine and
Anarchy as twin deities in the land of law and liberty!
Everything remains as the Rebels left it when they evacuated Florence, - remains almost as it was when these hillsides swarmed with our soldier prisoners. On the east and on
the west, outside the stockade, twenty rods or so distant from
the walls, are the long lines of earthworks reaching away to
the timber on either side, and far down in front of these
again are the numerous rifle-pits commanding the advance
for nearly a hundred rods. The main entrance to the stockade was at the northwestern corner.  Near this corner were
the log-houses of the guard and half a dozen small ovens.
The barracks stand almost as they did when last occupied,
but the houses over the ovens have been burned. Just
north of this entrance is a handsome little grove of a dozen
trees, among which yet remain the benches and stools of the
officers of the guard. Fifty feet in front of the middle of
the western wall was the flag-staff whence floated the banner of treason and slavery. Its stump only remains, and
loyal and disloyal alike cut chips of memento therefrom.
Across the pestilential quagmire, beyond the northeastern
corner, is another deserted village of log,-houses,- houses
of the guard for the rear of the prison-pen, not one of which
has been touched. I went among them with the wonder if
some long-haired, lean-bodied, leering,-eyed Johnnie might
not spring out with ready musket and bid me halt; and,
sure enough, from one of them suddenly emerged a fellow
in gray, who looked at me a moment, and then strode away
with a swinging and defiant step. In the southeastern corner
of the pen was the rear entrance. - thence the prisoners
193
9
1 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
went to fetch wood, a dozen cords of which yet lie piled
only five or six rods away.
The walls of the stockade are sixteen feet high, built of
unhewn logs some nine or ten inches in diameter, set deeply
in the ground. This solid wall of oak and pine logs is unbroken, except by the gate openings and the quagmire, - the
marshy ground necessitating the substitution of a stout board
fence for the wall of logs.  Outside the wall is, of course, a
wide and deep ditch, the earth from which is thrown against
the logs and forms a narrow path about three or four feet
below their tops, whereon the guard walked and overlooked
this prison-pen, and from whence fiends in human shape shot
half-crazed boys who straggled over this dead-line, which
runs just behind the hut within which I sit. A ditch could
not be dug through the quagmire, and so there are picket
platforms built on the fence there,- one, noticeably, on each
side over the brook.
Inside the stockade there has been very little change save
such as time makes. In the northwestern corner, near the
main entrance, was the hospital, -seven log-houses, each
some forty feet long and twenty feet wide. These the guard
partially burned when they left. Through the centre of the
enclosure from east to west is a narrow graded road; the
bridge over the creek has partially fallen in, but the roadbed is as hard and smooth as it was six months ago. The
Rebels attempted to burn the stockade wall by firing piles
of wood thrown against it on the inside, but the fire refused
its work, and only scorched the logs at seveuty-five or a hundred points of the long line; and the half-burned sticks of
wood and the little bundles of pitch-pine remain in their
places to show how the most destructive of the elements enlisted in the service of the Union, and saved this prison-pen
as an eloquent token of the cost of liberty.
Does any man, horrified by the stories told concerning it,
believe that the famous and in,famous " dead-line" was a
194 
THE FLORENCE STOCKADE.
myth? However it may have been elsewhere, here it is a
hateful reality. It is about twenty feet inside the stockade
walls.  Part of the way it is marked by a light pole laid in
crotches; elsewhere it is only marked by the line wlicli
distinguishes trodden from  untrodden ground, -of earth
rank with grass and of earth bare of grass.  Just back of
this hut, in the northeastern quarter, there is only this line
of grass and no-grass. Doubtless this was the best of the
Southern prison-pens; but even here, if current report
among such of the towns-people as can be induced to speak
at all of the stockade is true, the guards indulged in that
very pleasant and exceedingly humorous amusement which
consisted in to;sing pieces of meat or bread into the stockade, between the wall and dead-line, in order to get a shot
at some Yankee boy who was so hungry as to thoughtlessly
rush for it.  These fellows would have their joke, you see!
Shall we mudsills complain thereat?  If they serve who
stand and wait, did not these also serve who died between
the wall and the dead-line?
Go no more, even in dreams, to Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried cities of the Old World. Here is the city of
the living dead, - city as populous as those, as fruitful as
those in the signs and tokens of a life that was and is not.
On these ten or eleven acres there were at least 2,500 houses,
- perhaps 3,000 would be a more correct figure; and not less
than three fourths of them are nearly as good as they were
on the day of their sudden evacuation, and in hundreds of
them are memorials of that life of want and woe which 13,000
men knew here, and firom which 4,000 passed out through
the door of the dead-house to the slope way yonder by the
timber, and laid themselves down in long rows for the final
sleep and for the glorious reward due unselfish souls.
In the construction of these habitations there is almost
infinite varietv on a common, general plan.  This one in
which I sit, and through which the still driving storm begins
195 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
to beat, furnishes that general plan, with very little elaboration or decoration. Come in and see it. Do you find the
door low and narrow, and have you a horror of this squat
roof and these smokv walls and this earth floor?  Yet here
lived three or four men, for many weeks, doubtless, and,
perhaps, for many months!
The hut is six and a half feet long, four feet and three
inches wide, and about five feet high in the centre. A hole
of fifteen inches depth was dug; at either end of it was set
a forked stick; in these two forks was laid a ridge-pole.
The wall of our house is the side of the hole; the roof is
the slope of sticks or slabs of wood resting on the ridge-pole
and at the edge of the hole.  This is the general plan.  The
huts smaller than this are more numerous than those larger.
The back end is made of sticks driven into the ground,
against which earth has been thrown. The front end is
built with more care. Half of it is of mud brick, and the
door and the little chimney at the corner occupy the other
half. The door is simply a hole; the chimney is seemingly
built up of little bricks, and gives a tiny fireplace of about
fifteen inches square. The roof was first covered with pine
brush and then with six or eight inches of earth.
Perhaps a hundred of the huts are entirely above ground.
Possibly a score are so high that an ordinary man can stand
straight in them. But then there are a thousand built over
holes three feet deep, a thousand not more than four feet
high in the ridge, a thousand not more than four feet
square, some hundreds that show only such height above
ground as a well-filled grave. Do you deem it awful that
men should live in such habitations as these? Yet they
were palaces beside the burrows of Salisbury. The thousands of tiny brick used here were made firom the reddish
earth of the hillside west of the brook. The graded flat, extending back sixty or seventy feet from the stream, suggests
a parade-ground; but it was only the bed o-n which these
196 
THE FLORENCE STOCKADE.
little bricks were sun-baked. In the use of the brick there
was sometimes a great deal of skill and ingenuity displayed.
One sees with pleasure a score or two of chimneys that are
models of architectural beauty; one finds not a few fireplaces that are constructed with elaborate improvements.
So, too, a few of the huts have doors curiously braided or
woven of splinters. There is, indeed, over in the southwestern corner, one whole house above ground, woven, walls and
roof, like a basket.  These things, though, are exceptional;
generally there was only so much as would answer the baldest utilitarianism.
I saw with gladness that there was plenty of wood. Some
of it, as I have already said, is still piled in a long rank
just outside the stockade. There is an abundance, also,
scattered all about the enclosure, particularly east of the
brook. Look into a hundred huts, and you shall see wood
ready cut for the little fireplace in seventy-five of them
surely.  In a few cases it even yet lies nicely piled against
the chimney on the outside.
They were Yankee boys, the inhabitants of this city.
Here is a great pine knot fashioned into a barber's chair, for
which many a man would be glad to bid a hundred dollars
at a Sanitary Fair.  It is nothing but a rough bit of log,
but its purpose is evident enough.  They pitched quoits
sometimes, I judge; for over in the southeastern corner is
even now the little post at which they aimed, with an old
horseshoe lying near. So, too, they seem to have indulged
in cricket in the sweet spring days when General Sherman
and his forces were in the State above, for I found one
wicket in its place. Did they indulge in games at bows and
arrows? for I picked up what was clearly an arrow. That
they played checkers is certain, for just down the hill a little is a hut in which is a rude checkerboard, and in the
corner near the fireplace I tumbled out half a dozen of
their pieces,- four round, and two square, cut from pine
197 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
splinters. I guess they also played cards, for in one hut
I picked up the ten of clubs, the five spot and the queen
of hearts, and the ace and the jack of spades.  You see life
came to a sudden pause here,- there was no time for blot ting out all the marks of this daily existence; and, walk
where you will, you stumble against something that suggests
it was but yesterday these prison-boys found liberty.
The occupant of one house was a German. Here is a
scrap from some German newspaper, a leaf from a German
Testament,- parts of the second and third chapters of Second Corinthians,- and a bit of German manuscript, probably a letter.
In another hut I found an old tin plate, part of an iron
fork, the blade of a table-knife, and the bowl of a clay pipe.
An Irishman lived here; he wrote his name on one of the
posts, "AMic O'Lary"; and  I have  half a leaf from his
Prayer-Book:  "0 Lord God, I would not only pray for
myself, but for all men. Bless my relatives and friends
wherever they are. Bless, too, my enemies, and may they
become my friends.  1Iay universal peace soon prevail."
So the simple heart lifted sublime prayer in the night-time,
and consecrated his tent with the balm of forgiveness.
In this little square, deep hole-house was a page of Hazlitt's Table-Talk, a rude wooden spoon, a pair of wooden
knives, a tin plate, and an armful of pine wood.  WVas it
this morning that the tenant moved out into the large world?
In this adjoining cabin must have lived a boy direct from
one of the New England States.  It is six months since he
last passed through the door, yet everything is as orderly
and neat as if arranged but an hour ago. His wood is carefully piled in the corner next to the fireplace, his stool is
sound and strong, his sent against the wall has not fallen
down, the bowl of his brierwood pipe is sweet and clean.
He was saving and thoughtful: here is the spring of a
pocket-knife laid away against a possible need; carefully in
198 
THE FLORENCE STOCKADE.
the pine-bush covering of his roof is a little roll of blue
army cloth for patches; on a string, tied in the corner, are
strung three buttons.  Ile read somlebody's history of English Literature, for here is a leaf from the book, pages 229
and 230; he kept the roll of his mess, I judge, for here is a
page, wet and dingy, from his diary, on which are a dozen
names.
In still another hut I find a rude pipe-bowl, dug out of a
sassafras-root, and a wooden spoon large enough for a giant.
The boy was at home, too, to the tract distributor, for here
is No. 80 -" Do you know the Way?" - "published by a
South Carolina Colportage Board."
The boys who lived here -  a most wretched hut, with its
pile of straw in the centre - were also visited by the tract
man, who left with them "An  Old Blade in a New Scabbard," thlus: " Deserted: This is to certify that, within the
last twelve months, one Peter Weakhearted has deserted
from the army of Jesus Christ. One of our scouts saw him
last Sabbath walking arm in arm with Captain Lovesin, of
the Whiskey  Guards, in Cursing Grove, near Lake  Perdition. A gracious reward will be given for the recovery and
restoration of this deserter to the army."
In the house with a door at each end, - and there is but
one such house,- I found the rarest treasure of the morning.  It was tucked into the piny thatching, and concealed
by a scrap of red woollen cloth.  It is a daguerrotype, with
the cases half worn away by long shuffling in the knapsack,
and the whole tied together with a bit of black thread. It
is apparently the picture of mother and two sisters.  A goodlooking, sober-faced woman of forty-five, wearing black bonnet and veil and cape and dress, and holding a dark parasol; a young lady of nineteen or twenty, wearing a hat
trimmed with black, a lilgh-t spring or fall dress, andl a gray
cloth sack, and holdiing a fan; and, between and behind the
two, a sweet-faced miss of large and loving eyes, who stands
199 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
in such position that the only article of dress visible is a
black silk cape.
Said I not that here was life arrested in the very pulsebeat? The tale of Florence can be half read even now by
the dullest eye.
A quarter of a mile away from the entrance-gate are the
ei,ght long rows of mounds, to which so much of this life
finally came. 2,352, that is the highest number of the
graves; but there are many score unnumbered, and the
negroes say the men were often buried at random in the old
field.  "Chucked'em in like muttons," said an intelligent
negro carpenter, who was often in trouble for trying to feed
and help the boys in blue.  The half-acre of ground occupied by these known and numbered graves is not enclosed,
and vagrant cows wander at will over the low mounds. Of
course the Rebels kept a record of this potter's field, else
why the numbered graves? But that has not been, and
probably never will be, found.
The storm has passed by, and the sun, now almost in its
setting, suffuses the low west with a flood of golden glory.
I have spent the entire day in the stockade. The little
accessories of its prison life remain as I have drawn them;
its body and substance are told in the fact that from one
third to one fourth of the prisoners brought here are lying
yonder in the sandy hill-slope.
200 
TRAVEL LN THE CAROLINAS.
XXII.
LIFE AND LABOR IN THE SOUTIH CAROLINA LOW-COUNTRY.
CHARLESTON, October 21, 1865.
ET no man come into the Carolinas this fall or winter
for a so-called pleasure-trip. Since the first week in
September I have travelled over most of the stage and rail way routes in the two States; and I assure you that, though
I may have found some profit, I have not found very much
pleasure.
The railroads are worn out, and there is not a single line
in either State that should not be relaid with new iron at
the earliest possible day. Half the freight cars. are fit for a
few months more service, but the other half and all the passenger coaches were ready months ago for condemnation;
though I suppose they must be used another half-year at
least, because the various companies are unable to buy new
stock. The engines seem generally in rather worse order
than the cars, and a careful inspection of almost any one of
them is calculated to vividly impress the traveller with the
uncertainty of life. That delays and accidents are numerous follows as a matter of course. It must be said, however,
that the accidents do not very frequently result in loss of
life or serious injury of person. The average rate of railway
speed is about nine miles per hour in South Carolina, and
about eleven miles per hour in North Carolina. The cost of
travel is about seven and a half cents per mile; on one road
it is only six cents, and on another it is about eleven cents.
The late election passed off without any serious disturbance.   With respect to Governor, the vote of Charleston
stands,- James L. Orr, 785; Wade Hampton,  661.  An
effort was made to get the latter to run against Orr; but, at
9*
201 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the last moment, he declined doing so. Had he been a candidate, I think he would have received three fourths of the
vote of this district.
The city elected two senators and twenty representatives
for the Legislature. The delegation is, generally speaking,
weak; yet it is in one sense very strong, for it italicizes the
fact that the people are disposed to break away from the old
leaders and take up new men. Judge Lesesne, who has
been senator for a number of years, is defeated by a heavy
majority, though he is an estimable gentleman of much influence in State affairs.  With three or four exceptions, the
representatives are without legislative experience.   They
were mostly nominated by the "Workingmen's Association,"
and of course there is considerable disgust at the result
among the so-called aristocracy of the city.  In respect to
the matter of Unionism, it is only to be said that some of
them were Union men from the beginning to the end, some
were original Secessionists, and some were men who took
sides as little as possible. In a word, the result is only significant as marking  the triumph  of the common people
against the upper classes.
The city election takes place in less than a fortnight. As
yet very little has been said about it, "but I expect this
d-d'Workingmen's Association' will carry the day," complained one gentleman with whom I spoke. There is only
one candidate in the field for Mayor, —Mr. P. G. Gilliard,
an ex-Rebel colonel, who lost an arm in the war. The present incumbent of the office, MIr. Charles Macbeth, who has
been in it for many years, "killed himself," as I am told by
several persons, by moving in the late Convention to admit
negro testimony to the courts,- -" though why it should kill
him," says one of the legislators elect, "when we all know
we've got to come to it in less than six months, I can't
see."
The negro's prospects in the South Carolina low-country
202 
THE NEGRO'S SITUATION.
are not flattering. The situation is in many respects already
against him; and the Presidential order, under which Gen eral Howard is now here, is full of evil and woful portent.
Further observation of the agents of the Freedmen's Bu reau, and of the way in which they do the business intrusted
to them, confirms me more strongly in the opinion I expressed
six weeks ago, - that at least half of them are wholly unfit
for the positions they occupy. They cannot be trusted to
administer justice between the planters and the freedmen,
for they too generally side with the former, even in cases
where the right course is not difficult to choose.
Official reports from  ]arion, Darlington, and Williamsburg Districts represent the negroes as quiet, well-disposed,
and generally at work for mere starvation wages.  WMy own
observations in these three districts pretty fairly confirm
these reports, and furnish some clew to the bearing of the
whites.
I had opportunity to see many intelligent "fellows," as
the workingmen are invariably called by the planters. The
first complaint of all the whites is that the negroes will not
work, that they are constantly violating their contracts, &c.,
&c. I asked the "fellows" about this. "Well, you see,
boss," said one of them, "de fust dif'culty about de matter
be dis yer, we gits no meat; and de secon' is, dat we gits
de fum-tyin' too much."   The  whole  case was epi,grammatically stated in that sentence.
While we stopped a couple of hours at one station on the
railroad for water, I strolled off to the house of a planter who
had a dozen "fellows" and as many more women and children on his place. Men and women were at work in the cornfield, and he was smoking in his piazza, - everything in the
nature of a porch being called a "piazza."  He received
me courteously enough, and asked me to "have a pipe,"
which I declined.  "Did I come up from the kears?" he
inquired. I told him I did. lie had "heerd," he said, "that
203 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WVAR.
the kears was in trouble.'Pears like they are in trouble
most every day," he continued; "my neegurs is allus stoppin' in their work to run off and see what's the matter with
'em." That launched him into the usual stream. "Know
much about neegurs, mister?" he queried.  I told him I
had never lived in the South.  "Wall then, mister, ye don't
know much about'em." And he proceeded to enlighten me
at some length. Incidentally I asked him how he fed them.
"Corn and rice and such game as they can git," said he.
Afterwards, while speaking on general subjects, I asked
if there was much meat to be had for the white families.
" O yes," he replied, " right smart o' meat yer abouts."
Still later in the conversation I remarked, "I think you
said you don't give the negroes much meat."  "Jes so, mister; don't give neegurs bacon this year like we used to."
"Why so?" said I; "I believe you said there was right
smart of it in the country." lie seemed a little puzzled at
the turn of conversation, and suddenly "called to mind"
that he had an engagement with a neighbor at about that
hour.  He invited me to walk with him, and also invited
me to "turn in and lie out with us" if I ever came through
the country.
At Florence I found a most intelligent negro carpenter
who lived three miles out of town, but came in every day
to his work.  He had been travelling through the district
lately, -in connection with the league, I judged.   "What
is the real cause of trouble between the plantation negroes
and their employers?" said I.  "Well, sah," he answered,
"there's a many masters as wants to git de colored peoples
away, ye see; an' dey's got de contrac's, an' dey can't do it,
ye see, lawful; so dey'buses dem, an' jerks'em up by de
two fums, an' don't give'em de bacon, an' calls on'em to do
work in de night time an' Sun'ay, till de colored people dey
gits oneasy an' goes off."
In the cars, between the Santee and this city, I asked a
204 
THE WHITES AND THE NEGROES.
man who was loudly complaining about his "niggers" if the
planters generally gave their hands full allowance of bacon
this fall. "MiIany of'em don't give out any at all," said he,
somewhat snappishly.   So, too, while we lunched at the
river, I asked of a countryman who got on at Kingstree, "I
suppose now you give your negroes better meat than this?"
alluding to some on the table.  "Hav nI't guv'em any at all
fur nigh on two months."  "How's that?" said I;  "I don't
see how you get much work out of them unless you give them
meat." He answered that there was n't much in the country, and that the contracts didn't bind them to give the
negroes meat. And so, too, the man on whose left I sat at
dinner at the hotel to-day told his neighbor on the right of
a row he had been having with the officers of his district
about giving meat to his negroes; "an' he said I must let
'em have it twice a week," he remarked in colr#lusion.
A man who got on the cars at MIarion "'lowed" he had
been in jail for "whippin' a nigger, -bin in fifteen days,
sir; was there ever such a d-d outrage!" he exclaimed.
No one disputing him, he went on to say, "But  I larnt a
trick wuth two o' his'n," alluding, I suppose, to the officer
who sent him to jail.  "I jest strings'em up by the thumbs
for'bout half an hour, an' then they are d-d glad to go to
work." Another man whom I saw in the contract office at
Florence had strung a woman up by the thumbs, and also
whipped her, for which he also went to jail.
I infer from all I saw and heard while in the northeastern section, that the negroes at work in the pines are more
generally contented than those on plantations anywhere in
the State. There is more variety in the turpentine and rosin
business than in cotton-growing; and though the work may
be harder for one or two days in any given week, there are
other days in which there is but little to do. The yield of
rosin this season will be very small.
The negro's situation in the other districts of the so-called
205 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
low-country is not so good as in those already named. From
Georgetown there are many complaints that he is turbulent
and "rebellious," and these are made the pretext for treating
him with much severity. A gentleman from the town of
that name tells me of a case in which a negro was cruelly
beaten over the head and shoulders with a large club for insisting that an examination of his contract would show that
he was under no obligation to perform certain work required
of him.  In the upper part of Charleston District the planters are quietly holding meetings at which they pass resolutions not to sell land to negroes, and not to hire negroes
unless they can show a "consent-paper" from their former
owner.  In Beaufort District they not only refuse to sell
land to negroes, but also refuse to rent it to them; and many
black men have been told that they would be shot if they
leased land and undertook to work for themselves. From
Colleton District there are complaints that our own soldiers
are being used as negro-drivers; and an old man from near
St. George's showed me what he claimed was the wound of
a bayonet, inflicted upon him by a soldier because he would
not obey his orders in regard to the performance of a certain
piece of work.
I have no hesitation in saying that the negro troops ought
at once to be removed from the interior and put in garrison
on the coast.  I believe that the two AIassachusetts regiments, and perhaps one New York regiment, have done their
duty well, creditably to the States they represent, and honorably to the flag they bear; but, generally, the black regiments are wretchedly officered, and unless discipline is well
kept up the presence of the negro soldiery is sadly demoralizing to the resident negroes. These have troubles enough
without bearing those brought upon them by soldiers of their
own race who are ruled by rude and rough and lawless white
officers.
Not a little of the discontent among the blacks of Claren
206 
THE WHITES AND THE NEGROES.
don, Charleston, and Colleton Districts, and some of the hos tility of the whites toward the negroes in these districts, has,
I am confident, been engendered by the presence of these
badly officered negro troops. If their removal seems a concession to notorious and unrepentant Rebels, it is yet a concession demanded by the interests of the only loyal population in the three districts.
All these low-country districts are filled with negroes from
the up-country, - not with negroes raised there, but with
those taken up there during the war. Many of them have
drifted down here in search of freedom, but a large proportion have, after the summer's work, been turned away from
the plantations, and sent hither to live by begging or stealing. The cruelty of the old planters in this regard is shocking, and the tales told of the conduct of some of them would
be past belief if they were not well authenticated.
The better class of planters in the districts hereabouts
very much fear serious difficulty before spring with these
homeless and wandering negroes.  Hunger will lead, they
say, to theft, and theft will lead to organizations of white
men for protection of property; and these organizations will
lead to conflicts between the negroes and the lower class of
whites, in which the negroes will be worsted. That such an
issue of the present condition of affairs is possible, I can very
easily see; that it is probable, I do not incline to believe;
that the majority of the large planters will seek to prevent
it, I am quite certain.
If a "war of the races" is brought on in South Carolina,
it can have but one result, unless the United States troops
are made a third party to it.  "We'ns smart nuff t' hold
'r own," said a scowling but intelligent negro to me at Orangeburg. And they are. Moreover, the whites of all these
low-country districts know that fact, too.
Immigration is held to be the panacea for all present evils
and troubles. One of the representatives elect from this city
207 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
will make strong efforts to secure legislative action at the
coming session of the General Assembly in favor of a bill
granting State aid to foreign immigrants. The Yankee is
not wanted here, except by the enlightened few; but Germans who will consent to take a secondary position will be
welcomed.  Yet even they, with their liberal and democratic
ideas, are likely to encounter serious opposition during the
next two or three years at least.
I have already alluded to the presence in this city of General Howard. The following is the order under which he is
acting   -
" WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, }
WASHINGTON, October 9, 1865.      1
"General Order, No. 145.
"Whereas, certain tracts of land situated on the coast of South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, at the time for the most part vacant, were set apart, by Major-General W. T. Sherman's Special
Field Order, No. 15, for the benefit of refugees and freedmen that
had been congregated by the operations of war, or had been left
to take care of themselves by their former owners; and, whereas,
an expectation was thereby created that they would be able to
retain possession of said lands; and, whereas, a large number of
the former owners are earnestly soliciting the restoration of the
same, and promising to absorb the labor and care for the freedmen: It is ordered, that MIajor-General Howard, Commissioner
of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
proceed to the several above-named States, and endeavor to effect an arrangemenet mutually satisfactory to the freedmen and
the land-owners, and make report; and, in case a mutually satisfictory arrangement can be effected, he is duly empowered and
directed to issue such orders as may become necessary after a full
and careful investigation of the interests of the parties concerned.
"By order of the President of the United States.
" E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General."
The publication of this order has produced considerable
excitement and anticipative satisfaction among the rebellious
208
0 
TIHE SEA-ISLAND FREEDMEN.
portion of this community, and much anxiety amoing the
friends of the freedmen.  That the original intention of government in setting apart the Sea Islands was to either give
or   sell them to the freedmen I sincerely believe.  That the
negroes were allowed to receive the impression that this was
the purpose of the government is beyond all question. That
General Saxton colonized them in vast numbers on those
islands, with this understanding on his part and theirs, is
matter of record. If the faith of the nation was ever impliedly  pledged to anything, it was to the assurance that the
colored people should have a home there, -as witness the
famous order of General Sherman, approved by the Secretary of War, and practically indorsed for nearly nine months
by all branches of the government:- -
" HEAD-QUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF TIHE MISSISSIPPI, 
IN THE FIELD, SAVANNAH, GA., January 16, 1865.
"Special Field Or(ier, ATo. 15.
"I. The islands from Charleston, southl, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the
country bordering the St. John's River, Florida, are reserved and
set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the
acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United
States.
"II. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville the blacks may remain in their chosen
or accustomed vocations; hut on the islands and in the settlements
hereafter to be established no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to
reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be
left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United
States military authority and the acts of Congress. By the laws
of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is firee, and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected to conscription or forced military service, save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the Department,
under such regulations as the President or Congress may prescribe.
I)omestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics
N
209 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
will be free to select their own work and residence, but the young
and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers
in the service of the United States, to contribute their share towvard mnaintaining their freedom and securing their rights as citizens of the United States.
"III. Whenever three respectable negroes, heads of families,
shall desire to settle on land, and shall have selected for that purpose an island or a locality clearly defined, within the limits above
designated, the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations will himsel, or by such subordinate officer as he may appoint, give them
a license to settle such island or district, and aflord them such assistance as he can to enable them to establish a peaceable agricultural settlement. The three parties named will subdivide the
land, under the supervision of the Inspector, among themselves
and such other as may choose to settle near them, so that each
family shall have a plot of not more than (40) forty acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not
more than eight hundred feet of water fiont, in the possession of
which land the military authorities will afford them protection,
until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress
shall regulate their title. The Quartermaster may, on the requisition of the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, place at
the disposal of the Inspector, one or more of the captured steamers, to ply between the settlements and one or more of the commercial points heretofore named in orders, to afford the settlers
the opportunity to supply their necessary wants, and to sell the
products of their land and labor.
"IV. Whenever a negro has enlisted in the military service of
the United States, he may locate his family in any one of the settlements at pleasure, and acquire a homestead, and all other
rights and privileges of a settler, as though present in person.  In
like manner, negroes may settle their families and engage on
board the gunboats, or in fishing, or in the navigation of the in land waters, without losing any claim to land or other advantage
derived from this system.  But no one, unless an actual settler
as above defined, or unless absent on government service, will be
entitled to claim any right to land or property in any settlement
by virtue of these orders.
'' V. In order to carry out this system of settlement, a general
210 
THE SEA-ISLAND FREEDMEN.
officer will be detailed as Inspector of Settlements and Planta   tions, whose duty it shall be to visit the settlements, to regulate
their police and general        management, and who will furnish per   sonally to each head of a family, subject to the approval of the
President of the United States, a possessory title in writing, giv  ing as near as possible the description of boundaries; and who
shall adjust all claims or conflicts that mnay arise under the same,
subject to the like approval, treating such titles altogether as pos  sessory.  The same general officer will also be charged with the
enlistment and organization of the negro recruits, and protecting
their interests while absent fiom their settlements; and will be
governed by the rules and regulations prescribed by the War De  partment for such purposes.
" VI. Brigadier-General R. Saxton is hereby appointed Inspec  tor of Settlements and Plantations, and will at once enter on the
performance of his duties. No change is intended or desired in
the settlement now on Beaufort Island, nor will any rights to
property heretofore acquired be affected thereby.
"By order of MIajor-General W. T. Sherman.
"; L. M. DAYTON,
Assistant A djutant-General."
If this order means anything, it means that the govern ment intended to give the negroes  "an  expectation that
they would be able to retain possession of said lands"; and
if the President's order of the 9th does not break the im plied national pledge, then everybody in Charleston fails to
comprehend its spirit and purpose.
The ex-Rebel owners of the islands are quite ready to
make promises, which one in five may perhaps  keep.   Yet
I talked with one this forenoon who does n't believe a free
negro will work, who expects to have control of his land by
Christmas or New Year's, and who is already devising ways
to get rid of the negroes upon it. The city property of the
most virulent Rebels is being restored to them as fast as
possible under executive orders; and the common conclusion of all classes that General Howard  must find a "satisfactory arrangement" is held to be justified by the action
211 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
in respect to other property. In a word, the interpretation
of the order is, that he is to make the best terms he can for
the freedmen, and then surrender the islands to their former
owners.  If anything better than this results from his mission, the people of Charleston will have a new grievance,
and the freedman and his resident friends a new cause for
rejoicing, and for thankfulness to Him whose promises are
yea and amen unto all men.
Three days ago General Howard went down to Edisto
Island in company with a representative of the old owners
thereof. They were met at a church by over two thousand
freedmen, and a long and painfully interesting meeting was
held.  To say that the negroes were overwhelmed with sorrow and dissatisfaction is to state a fact in sober phrase.
General Howard explained to them with carefiul and sympathetic words what he believed to be the wishes of the Presi dent, and asked them to appoint a committee to consider the
terms proposed by the planters.  This they did; and while
the committee were in consultation, the assembly sang sev eral of the most touching and mournful of the negro songs,
and were addressed in broken and tearful words by some of
their own preachers.  The scarcely concealed spirit of all
was that the government had deceived them, and it required
the most earnest efforts of General Howard and his asso ciates to keep this spirit from finding stormy outbreak. The
result of the conference between representative Whaley and
the Freedmen's Committee does not promise a speedy recon ciliation of the negroes to their removal from the lands.
They say that they will not, under any circumstances, work
with overseers as heretofore, which is what the planters
propose. Some few of them seemed willing to work for fair
wages, but the great body were anxious to rent or buy the
lands, to which the planters will not consent.
General Howard has represented the dilc(ulties of the
case to the President in strong terms. I am sure he will
212 
THE SEA-ISLAND FREEDMEN.
do his hard task with all possible consideration for the inter ests of the freedmen. Hle has issued some orders in the
premises, the main features of which are, that the agents of
the bureau on the several islands are to constitute boards
of supervisors representing the government, the planters,
and the freedmen; and that no lands occupied by negroes
are to be restored till the planters engage to give the freed men all the crops of this year, secure them in their homes,
and pay them fair wages for the work of the coming year.
I have no idea this bargain will or can be carried out,
because, first, the planters will not agree to their part of it;
and, second, the negroes will not give up the islands on such
terms. The South-Carolinians are reasonably well disposed
toward the government, because they know the folly of
further resistance to it; but their general hostility and antipathy to the negro is something remarkable to see.  The
planters believe they ought to have their old estates, and
they also believe the President means that they shall have
them; and hence the "fair terms" which they propose are
such as will neither satisfy the freedmen nor the friends of
the fireedmen. The negroes, on the other hand, almost universally believe that the islands have been given to them,
and they are not likely to very readily relinquish that belief. They long ago lost all faith in their old masters. An
attempt to force them firom the islands at present, or to compel them to the acceptance of the terms proposed by the
planters, will overthrow their faith in the government, and
then there will be - bloodshed.
213 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XXIII.
LIFE AND LABOR IN THE SOUThI CAROLINA UP-COUNTRY.
BLACKVILLE, October 23, 1865.
HE trip from Charleston to Augusta is not one that can
be recommended as agreeable to make.  There are
four routes by which you may travel, and no one in Charleston, so far as I could find, can tell which a traveller had better take. The air-line distance between the two points is
about one hundred and ten miles. The routes are as follows: first, one hundred miles by sea, ninety miles by railroad,
and forty-six miles by stage; second, one hundred and ten
miles by railroad and forty-five miles by stage; third, ninety-four miles by railroad and fifty-one miles by stage; fourth,
eighty-five miles by railroad and fifty-six miles by stage.
The expense of the trip is about the same on each route. I
chose the last named.
Leaving Charleston early yesterday morning, I reached
Branchville at eleven o'clock, - sixty-three miles by rail.
From that point the stage runs twice a week to Johnson's
Turn Out,- fifty-six miles.   Twice a week -in promise;
whenever it is n't broken down - in fact.   I believe, to
speak cautiously, that I may say it makes the trip - occasionally!  MIy day did n't happen, however, to be its day;
and when I saw the thing this evening, I was very thankful
for that happening. Finding the stage-coach broken down,
there was nothing to do but to prove the virtue of patience
by waiting to see what would turn up.
Branchville is a flourishing town of about nine buildings,
situated in a swamp. Its principal attractions are enormously
large mosquitos, ravenously hungry bedbugs, and smashedup railroad engines. The railroad eating-house, however,
214 
THE WORK OF THE ARMY.
sets a table excelled by only one hotel in South Carolina;
and the bed furnished the Connecticut captain and myself
by the lady in charge was both clean and comfortable.
This morning we all got off for Johnson's, - the gentleman
and lady fiom LNew York in a North Carolina ark drawn by
a pair of mules of extreme poverty; the cotton-buyer and
the colonel in an old army wagon that came down with cot  ton; the captain and myself in a rickety carryall that could
scarcely carry itself; and the other three in a tolerably com  fortable family carriage. We are to pay fifteen dollars each,
-the captain and I. Our team is a span of horses, both
poor, and one very aged.  Our driver, the owner of the es  tablishment, is a refugee from the sea-islands, of one of the
great South Carolina families, whose different branches have
so long intermarried that the present generation is neither
shrewd nor intelligent. By twelve hours' continuous driv ing, over roads moderately good, we made thirty-two miles!
and at half past eight this evening we were put out at a
small house in the suburbs of Blackville.
All day long we have travelled in the track of Sherman's
army; and we come to our quarters to-night with the most
profound admiration for the genius displayed by his troops
in destroying railroads. Literally, their work must be seen
to be appreciated. To wind a bar of iron twice around a
telegraph pole or a small tree seems to have been but mere
pastime, and to fuse a dozen bars together at the centre by
an immense fire of ties appears to have been thought a happy joke. Our road has neither led us near many houses
nor many ruins of houses; but of fences there are none
worth mentioning, except such as have been built during the
season. Blackville is a poor little village of perhaps six
hundred inhabitants.
This district- Barnwell -is the home of Aldrich, the
mover in the late Convention of the famous fire-eating resolution. I guess he well represented his constituents; for
215 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
I am told that they voted almost unanimously for Wade
Hampton for Governor, and will not vote for General Samuel McGowan, the principal candidate for Congress, who,
by the way, has issued an address to the voters of the Congressional District, in which occurs the following paragraph,
reaffirming the significant declarations he made in the Convention concerning the Democratic party and the question
of negro suffrage:
"'After the delegations from the Southern States shall have
been received into Congress, many delicate and important duties
will devolve upon them, especially in reference to the freedmen
of the South, and the control which Congress, or a party in Congress, may desire still to exercise over them.  It may not be improper, in this connection, to say that, whilst I have approved the
course of the State in seeking to restore her old relations with the
government of the United States, it has been upon the faith and
expectation that the State, as soon as reconstructed, is to have
entire control of the whole subject of her domestic affairs. The
State, and the State alone, must be left to decide to whom she
will give the right of suffirage or other political rights. A new
code noir must be enacted to protect and govern the population
lately made free, - to prevent idleness, vagrancy, pauperism, and
crime. I am not prophet enough to foresee whether we can succeed, but I solemnly believe it will be impossible to live in the
country at all unless the State has exclusive control of the whole
subject. I have hope that this will be permitted; and I think it
is in accordance with our interests and true policy to sustain the
President and the Democratic party in their efforts to restore the
States to their position of equality, and to give them equal rights
in the government."
One finds in this South Carolina up-country a strong feeling of favor toward Jeff Davis.   Among, the men to whom
I spoke on the subject at' Columbia and other points, at lea,st
two thirds were very confident that his release was advisable
as a peace-offering to the South.
I had some conversation with a Faiifield man in regard
216
i 
DAVIS AND JOHNSON.
to the matter, and what he said is substantially what a dozen
other persons have said to me.
"gir. Davis," he observed, "is a very pure man and a sincere Christian. He had little to do with' bringing on the
war, and your people can't afford to hang him."
"But is he not very unpopular with your own people?" I
asked.
"Not with the people at large, sir. Some of our leaders
don't like him, and just before the close of the war there was
much denunciation of him in some of our newspapers. But
I assure you they did n't reflect the sentiment of our people."
"I suppose you know," said I, "that we generally hold
him deserving of death for treason."
" Yes, I reckon most of you would like to see him hang;
but you would shock the whole civilized world if you hung
him, sir."
"But suppose we judge that he must be hung to make
treason odious, as the President says?"
"I think Andy Johnson never will hang him.  He is a
Southern man, and he loves the South better than he does
the North."
In further conversation he said the President had been
more lenient toward the South than any one could have
hoped he would be.
The order against wearing the Confederate button is neither so generally obeyed nor so vigorously enforced up this
way as in the low-country. I notice it not only on old garmerits, but on coats made within a month; and whereas it
appears to be elsewhere worn usually because of the poverty
of the people, men sport it here as the badge of allegiance
to the South.  In some towns where the order in respect to
it has been carried into effect, the young men accomplish
their purpose of spite by ostentatiously wearing coats on
which there are no buttons.
10
217 
THE SOUTH SINCE THIE WAR.
At Branchville I fell in with a gentleman from Newberry,
who urged that the government ought to enforce the Monroe
doctrine.  I asked him if he thought this country needed
any more fighting just at present.  He believed, he said,
that a very large body of men, South as well as North, would
like to lend a hand to help drive Ailaximillian out of Mexico.
But surely you of South Carolina, I said, ought to be at
work here at home.  Well, yes, there was workl to do, but
a foreign war would do more than almost anything else to
restore good feeling in this country.  Do you really suppose,
I queried, that many of the Confederate soldiers would join
an army to cross the PRio Grande?  Your General Sheridan, he replied, could get a thousand from our State in two
weeks if he called for them.  "I reckon not," said a man
who had been an attentive listener,- -" I reckon not; I've
been a soldier three years, and I know I've had fight enuff
to last me my life, and I don't know of any old comrade who
wants to shoulder his gun for anybody agen."
While in Lexington District I called on a planter who
was exceedingly anxious to learn what the government was
going to do about paying for the slaves.
I told him I did n't know as anything was to be done.
"I'low the gov'ment won't take away all our niggers fur
nothin'."
I answered that I had no idea a single dollar would ever
be given as compensation.
"But the Cons'tution makes nigg,ers prop'ty, and gov'ment
is bound to pay for'em."
I explained to him at some length what had been from
time to time done by the authorities in respect to slavery
and the freedmen, and repeated the expression of my belief
that no action would ever be had even looking to the pay ment of money as compensation for emancipation.
Well, Congress had paid for niggers in Washington, he
knew, and he thought't would be a d-n shame if it did n't
218 
THE NEGRO'S SITUATION.
pay for'em in South Carolina. If everybody was to be
plundered in that way, he did n't know as he cared to come
back into the Union.
One of the men stopping to-night at the house where I
am also urged at some length this evening that government
ought to pay for the slaves, and would do no more than the
fair thing if it granted the South a hundred millions for
damages to other property.
Another man was quite certain that the President would
not require the South to pay any part of the national debt.
"What, ruin us, and then make us help pay the cost of
our own whipping?  I reckon not!"
"What will you do about it?"
"0, well, I reckon we won't have to help pay that debt,
no how."
There is an uneasiness of feeling among the negroes of the
South Carolina up-country which promises no good to them.
The military arm was slow in making itself felt in this section generally, and, per consequence, the negroes were held
in actual slavery much longer than in the low-country. It
was impossible but that such a state of facts should produce
discontent and anxiety among them, and collisions between
the two races are of much more frequent occurrence than
in the lower part of the State.  Speaking in general terms,
the whites are not so well disposed toward practical recognition of the negro's freedom as are those of the other section,
nor are the negroes so generally disposed to remain quietly
on the plantations where they have been living.
This district, Barnwell, has gained an unenviable notoriety
thlrouIghout the State for the cruelty with which its negro
population is treated.  If half the stories are true that I
h-ar, the resident agent of the Freedmen's Bureau is not
only unfit for his place, but is deserving of court-martial. I
learn of many outrages upon the negroes; and to knock one
of them down with a club, or tie one of them up and horse
219 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
whip him, seems to be regarded as only a pleasant pastime.
One of the men employed about the stables here cut off a
negro boy's ear last week with one blow of a whip, and tells
of the act as though it were a good joke. In the lower section of the district, as a planter tells me, there is a regular
patrol-and-pass system, such as prevailed in the days of
slavery. There is, I judge, much lawlessness on the part
of the negroes. How much of it is induced by their treatment I am unable to say.  I have the statement from several parties that the blacks have organized a band of about
one hundred persons, which goes up and down the district
for the purpose of robbery. One gentleman assures me that
the band is led by a white man.
The district above this, Edgefield, has also an undesirable
name.   At Columbia I heard two delegates speaking of
affairs therein.  They admitted that "many negroes" had
been beaten to death during the summer, and said the planters were very slow in discovering what emancipation meant.
Among the negroes whom I met at Orangeburg was one from
Edgefield, who showed me a back not yet healed from a
severe whipping given him in August.
In Greenville District, which is the home of Governor
Perry, there is, I believe, from what I can learn, a band of
so-called "regulators," who, on a small scale, are assuming
to govern the negroes.
In Anderson District, which is the home of Governor
Orr, a case has just occurred, of which I learned the particulars from head-quarters at Charleston. On the night of
the 8th instant, three soldiers of a 3Iaine regiment, who were
guarding some government cotton which a treasury agent
was shipping down the river, were brutally murdered,shot from behind, as is the custom of the country. There is
not the least complaint that they were in any way specially
obnoxious or had been guilty of any wrong deed.  They
were simply killed because they were Yankees.   Investiga
220 
THE NEGRO'S SITUATION.
tions already made lead to the conclusion that at least a
score of persons were engaged in the murder, only three or
four of whom have been arrested. A negro who was supposed to have communicated some information to the authorities in respect to the matter has also been murdered; and
anonymous letters have been circulated in which it is distinctly announced that any one will be killed who aids in
bringing the murderers to punishment.
In Newberry District a case has recently occurred in
which the negroes took justice into their own hands. It
appears that in a car which was standing on the track were
three or four women and two Rebel soldiers,- one of them
a Texan. A negro sergeant had occasion to enter the car,
and was roughly ordered out by the Texan. He responded
to the effect that he knew his business and should mind it.
The two Rebel soldiers thereupon seized him and undertook
to thrust him out.  He resisted, and the Texan stabbed him,
inflicting what was supposed to be a mortal wound. In an
hour the two Rebels were caught by the negro soldiers of
the regiment to which the sergeant belonged; and in three
hours more the Texan had been tried by drum-head courtmartial, shot, and buried. The other Confederate escaped
while they were taking him up for trial, and will not be
retaken.
During the early part of the season the whole up-country
was filled with negroes, brought up last fall by their owners
to keep them out of the way of the Yankees. These are
drifting back to the coast districts at the rate of two to three
hundred per week. In not a few instances they report that
they have been turned from the plantations,- which report
is, in some cases, probably true.
I find very few negroes who seem willing to make contracts for the coming year. MIany appear to have a notion
that they can live more easily and comfortably by job work.
A considerable number are anxious to become landholders,
221 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
by lease or by time purchases.  Large numbers are "waitin'
fur Janawry," hoping, as near as I can learn, that some
change for the better will occur at that time. The great
body of the freedmen have worked during this season for
wholly inadequate wages, and seem, under the circumstances, to have worked with reasonable faithfulness.
XXIV.
SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTH-CAROLINIANS.
AIK;EN, October 24, 1865.
T IE importance of soap and water as elements in civili     zation have been much ignored or overlooked. I am
satisfied that if the people of this State, with all their belongings and surroundings - except such as would be damag,ed by water, -could be thoroughly washed at least once
a week, a year would show a very material advance toward
civilization. I do not now speak of inward or mental foulness, though doubtless a weekly cleansing in this regard
would be beneficial; but I am convinced that he would be agreat public benefactor who could prevail upon the common
people of South Carolina to make good use of soap and water. Thrift and tidiness are handmaids of cleanliness; and if
it were possible to bring the latter into the homes of the
poorer classes of this State, I make no doubt that the next
generation would find here the material prosperity of ]Iassachusetts.
I am too much a traveller -not in foreign lands, but in
my own country- to be upset in my equanimity by even a
wide departure from the average cleanliness of New England housewives, and I very readily make allowance for dif
222 
THE LABOR QUESTION.
ference of custom; but, after all this, I cannot help remark  ing what general negligence and slovenliness there is in the
houses of the poorer and so-called lower class of inhabitants,
and how easily people accommodate themselves to conditions
that could not exist a week in any Northern community.
Personal cleanliness is much more general than household
cleanliness, whence I conclude that there is something radi cally rotten in the labor system of the State. It would seem
that neglroes are natural slovens, or that the relation of mas ter and slave has ruined them in this regard. It would also
seem fthat master and mistress have either not cared, or have
been unable, to insist upon the right and proper thing in this
respect.
Any thoughtful traveller will notice that the aggregate
number of white men in the State of ages ranging from
twenty-five to forty-five is comparatively small; and he can not help remarking with pain and sorrow that the majority
of them are idlers or semi-vagabonds.  I don't forget that
the whole labor system of the State is thoroughly demoralized and disorganized; and the sad thing is, not that so many
men are out of regular business, but that so many are using
no endeavor to get into business. I have talked with hundreds who have done nothing since the war closed, and don't
intend doing anything before next spring at best.
"I saw a very painful thing the other day," said an intelligent gentleman to me at Columbia one evening; "it was
the only son of one of our first families driving an expresswagon. His father was killed in the war, your government
has taken the house and grounds, and he is actually supporting his mother and sister by driving a hack!"
"Is labor honorable?" I asked.
"Well, but you see we are not accustomed to manual labor: it has always been counted degrading, and it is really
humiliating that, Henry should drive a hack!"
" Better that than starvation?" I queried.
223 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"0, well, of course; but then his friends would gladly have
helped him along till he could find something less degrading
than hack-driving."
I judge, from various conversations I have had with young
men, that no considerable number are likely, just at present,
to pain their friends/by engaging in any useful employment.
Lads of sixteen to twenty are plenty enough at all loafingplaces, and their talk is not at all encouraging to one hopeful
of the future.
The negro, bad as his condition is, seems to me, on tho
whole, to accommodate himself more easily than the white
to the change of situation. He does n't like plantation work,
and moves, day by day, in a great wave of life, toward the
sea-coast. He can't tell you why he is going toward Charleston. It is vagabondism with some; it is a blind instinct for
freedom and proximity to the Yankee with others. Just how
all these negroes who have deserted the plantation manage
to live no one can tell; but live in some way, and without
very much stealing, they do. Half a dollar will start a
whole family in trade, and a negro woman in Columbia, to
whom that amount had been given, was next day selling
corn-cake and peaches on a corner near the post-ofice, where
I found her on every succeeding day of my stay. I asked
a middle-aged colored man who had a little stand under a
large tree near the church in which the Convention met, how
all the negroes who had quit the plantations managed to get
along.  "Dun know, sah, but'pears like dey got'long somehow."
I should say that the real question at issue in the South
is, not "What shall be done with the negro?" but "What
shall - be done with the white?"  It is both absurd and
wicked to charge that the negroes, as a class, are not at
work. Their vitality is at least thirty or forty per cent
greater than that of the average whites. They can support
their cheap lives with very little labor, and the niggardly
224 
THE LABOR QUESTION.
short-sightedness of the planters prevents them from becom ing landholders: why should they concern themselves to
do much work? Of course the whites are forever complain ing. They demand that all labor shall be, as heretofore, in
the hands of the blacks; and all ease and profit, as hereto fore, in the hands of themselves.
If the nation allows the whites to work out the problem
of the future in their own way, the negro's condition in three
years will be as bad as it was before the war. All that force
and spirit and energy which made them such bitter enemies
of the government is now turned into a channel for the
overwhelming of the blacks. The viciousness that could not
overturn the nation is now mainly engaged in the effort to
retain the substance of slavery. What are names if the
thing itself remains?
There is, of course, another side to this labor question.
W~hite men don't know how to work, and the organization of
society has been such that in many cases this is their misfortune rather than their fault. Take the useful occupations of
mason, carpenter, blacksmith, by which so many men at the
North find support, comfort, and even  opulence, - more
than half the blacksmiths, most of the brick-masons, and nearly all the hundred or more carpenters that I have seen were
colored men. The few white men one meets who seem anxious to go into business really don't know what to do. The
resources of tact, handicraft, and intelligence at the command
of a Northern man are not at their command.   They will
get a wood contract, or will establish I line of hauling-wagons,
or open a store.  "Going into trade" seems a very common
resort; and as a consequence, small shops are exceedingly
numerous, and are daily increasing.
Really, the promise of the morrow is not wholly encouraging.  Existence has supported itself so long on the shoulder
of the slave that it has few resources of its own; and numbers
of men who would be at something by which the lease on
10o*                             o
225 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
life and comfort could be held, sit idly by without either ability or energy.  Of course, one may answer that it is their
own failing, &c.; but, as I said before, the case is sometimes
one of misfortune rather than fault. The whole organization
of society was unsound, and the whole burden of its disease
falls upon the men of this generation: the few have inherent energy enough to make for themselves a place in the
ranks of labor; but the many wait, half listlessly and half
hopefully, for time to bring them victory over necessity.
The strictest economy in personal expenditure is everywhere a pressing necessity.   The  people are very poor.
Three fourths of the property which they had at the beginning of the war is gone. Their slovenly method of living is
neither pleasant to see nor agreeable to share, but it would
be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if the same degree
of economy could be made to prevail throughout the country.
Not that this meagre and narrow life is in itself a good thing,
but that the salvation of a people lies in days of forethought
and a considerate expenditure of the gains of business.
South Carolina is just now an excellent place of residence
for one who is forced to the wearing of old clothes. Any
possible style of garment is in full fashion; and a week's
travel in the interior will give anybody the sight of coats,
for instance, in styles enough to drive a tailor crazy. Southern homespun is doubtless a serviceable cloth, but it is very
rarely a handsome one. How garments made from it at a
Broadway house might look is an open question; in garments made after the scant patterns of the back-country
there is neither comfort to the wearer nor satisfaction to the
beholder. Yet one cannot help rejoicing at seeing how proud
some of the people are of this same ill-looking homespun. It
is in special cases the mark of Southern allegiance, but it is
at least the sign and token of native industry. Possibly the
negroes spun and wove it, but mechanical skill in any class
is one of the elements of a prosperous future.
226 
THE SOUTH CAROLINA DIALECT.
Education never was general in the State, and for the last
two or three years it has been almost entirely neglected.
The ignorance of the great body of the whites is a fact that
will astonish any observer conversant with the middle classes
of the North. Travel where you will, and that sure indication of modern civilization, the school-house, is not to be
found. Outside half a dozen of the larger towns I have not
seen a dozen in over six hundred miles of travel.  A  few
persons express the hope that the Legislature will do something to set the College once more at work; but, generally
speaking, the indifference of the masses to the whole subject
of education is as startling as it is painful.
The negroes, on the other hand, though in a very ignorant
manner, are much interested in the matter. They all seem
anxious to learn to read, - many of them appearing to have
a notion that thereby will come honor and happiness. Schools
for their benefit have already been established at some of
the principal points, and the intent of the Freedmen's Bureau
is that there shall be at least one in each district before spring.
The disposition of the whites toward the negro schools is not
good, and in many localities the teachers would be subject
to insult, and probably to outrage, but for the presence of
the military.
The language of the common people of the State is a curious mixture of English and African. There is so little
communication between the various sections that the speech
of the northern part is in many particulars quite unlike that
of the southern part. The language of the negroes is even
more marked than that of the lower classes of the whites,
and their isolation is such that each district of the State has
a dialect of its own. To show how speech is corrupted, I
may mention that I have met many negroes whose jargon
wvas so utterly unintelligible that I could scarcely comprehend the ideas they tried to convey.
The negroes almost invariably drop the final g in words
227 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
of two or more syllables that end in ing, as comin' for
coming, meetin' for meeting, &c. They also drop the final d
in words of all syllables, as an' for and, fn' for fnd, aroun'
for around, behin' for behind, &c. The final t is usually, but
not always dropped, as fas' for fast, reos' for most; though
by a change of vowel it is sometimes retained, as fut for foot,
faust for first, &c. Thef in of is, I believe, always dropped,
as o' corn for of corn, and o' my cabin for of my cabin. For
the letter thus dropped b is sometimes substituted, as chil' ob
Pete for child of Peter, ob life for of life, &c.
Exceptions to this general rule in regard to final letters
are numerous enough: thus goingbecomes gwine, child becomes chile or cheel, set becomes sette, &c.
The letters w and v are frequently interchanged: thus very
becomes werry, and well becomes vell, &c. On the other
hand, ve is often changed into b, as forgib for forgive, lib for
live, &c. The letters th are never heard; their place in
short words is filled by d, as de for the, dis for this, dat for that,
&c.; while in longer words the h is lost and the t retained,
as tree for three, trow for throw, tings for things, &c.
From dropping letters the way is short to dropping syllables, and gentleman becomes gen'l'man, little becomes leel,
government becomes gov'ment, plantation becomes plan'shun,
tobacco becomes bacca, &c.
From a change of syllables the way is short to a change
of words, and us becomes we, she becomes her, and he becomes hint; thus all of us is all we, she runs is her runs, he
has got a whip is him's got vhip, &c.
By a still more curious trick of words the pronoun them
is used in the objective for any gender or number, but undergoes, among the low-country negroes especially, such a
change itself as to be hardly recognizable.   Tell me  the
meaning of the unique word shutm?  Yet it is in very conmon use among the negroes of this class, and is their corruption of the words see them.
228 
THE SOUTH CAROLLNA DIALECT.
The term applied by the negroes to their owners or em  ployers is not, as generally printed, massa or mass'r.  They
use the long a, and the word is really, out of the cities,
mawssa, and sometimes even mawrssa, though this last pro.
nunciation is rarely heard.
The terms cousin and brother are in common use among the
negroes, and seem to be expressive of equality. The older
and more trusted blacks of a plantation never speak of a field
hand as cousin; but the field-hands designate each other as
Bro' Bob, Bro' John, Co'n Sally, Co' Pete, &c.
Of words whose pronunciation is without rule, so far as I
can discover, take the following instances: shut is shet, such
is sich, drove is druv, catch is ketch, there is thar, car is kear,
steady is studdy, another is nudder, hear is hare, sure is sho,
both is boft, &e., &c.
The particle da is curiously used; thus, for John is com ing, we have John da come; for he runs in the road, we have
he da run, &c. Is the word a corruption of do, and is it in dicative of present action? I am unable to suggest any other
explanation, and that this is the true one I am not at all
certain.
The salutation how do you do is never anything more than
howv-dy, and with the lower class of negroes is simply huddy.
The words dun gone are in very common use, as, " WVe's
jus' tdun gone broke de co'n," "He's  dun gone to town,"
"Her's done gone steal my gr'un'-nut," "All we gang o' nigger dun gone an' lef urn," &c. The word both is not generally used, the phrase all-two taking its place.
The language of the lower classes of the whites is so much
like that of the negroes that it is difficult to say where the
English ends and the African begins. Very many of the
strange words and phrases which I have mentioned as in
use allmong the negroes I have also heard among the backcountry whites.  There are other instances, however, of a
corruption of language in which the negroes have no part.
229 
THE SOUTHII SINCE THE WAR.
A South-Carolinian never thinks or guesses, but'lows or
reckons.  He ha'n't got no use for a  Yankee  nohow, and
thinks him a no-'count fellow, or a low-downi tr fin' cuss, of
whom he would like to git shet; and he will feel obligated to
you if you will help him out of his ill-fortunate situation;
and, dog-gone-you, as you are not an ill-conditioned man, and
as he has refugeed from the Yankees, he will take a little
whliskey with you dry-so.
XXV.
FIRST GLIMPSES OF GEORGIA.
MIILLEDGFVILLE, October 26, 1865.
THE distance from Aiken to Augusta is twenty miles,
and it is made by railroad in two hours and a half, at
an expense of two dollars, on the narrow, pine-board, backless seats of a tolerably clean car.
Augusta is considered by many persons the handsomest
city in the South, and I have often been told that I would
find its general appearance much like that of a Northern
city. It certainly is a pleasant place, and there are not
many finer streets than the long, wide avenue on which
most of its business is done; and yet in respect of beauty
the city has no advantage over Raleigh, and cannot be compared with the Columbia that existed a year ago. That
anybody should have fancied it had the appearance of a
Northern city seems to me very remarkable.  Everything
about it, from the piazzaed cottages on its back streets to
the great hotel in which it domiciles its guests, from the
broad-doored cigar-shop on the corner to the dry-goods palace in its principal block, is distinctively Southern; and he
230 
FIRPST GLIMPSES OF GEORGIA.
certainly must have had a dull eye for local characteristics
who could ever have found here any striking resemblance
to either Portland or Worcester or Syracuse or Detroit or
Columbus or Quincy or Dubuque.
The air-line distance from Augusta to Milledgeville is
about eighty-five miles. There are three routes, and no one
to tell the traveller which is the most expeditious, comfortable, or inexpensive.  They  are as follows:  first, daily,
three hundred miles by railroad; second, tri-weekly, one
hundred and thirty miles by railroad and twenty miles by
stage; third, semi-weekly, sixty-three miles by railroad and
thirty-seven by stage. Being once here, I don't wonder everybody in Augusta is professedly so ignorant concerning the
various routes; for the truth is, come by which you will, you
wish you had taken some other.
I chose the last-named of the three routes, and fifty miles
of railroad travel brought me, at 10 A. M., to Camak, a
lively railroad station of three private residences, a vacant
store, and a deserted law-office.
In going up and down its busy streets I met a matronly
and neatly dressed negro woman to whom I touched my hat,
and an elderly and somewhat pompous white man of whom
I asked my prospects for getting a dinner. He could guv
me dinner up yon at his house, he said, when noon cum on.
So I went there, and got a dinner of stewed beef, boiled
sweet potatoes, hoe-cake, and buttermilk.  Not being quite
sure that I was an invited guest, I was a little embarrassed
by the question of compensation. I found, however, on
broaching the matter, that the old gentleman had no difficulty in charging me a dollar.
The gentlemen whom I met on the cars did not appear to
believe that any honest jury in the country would, on trial,
find Davis or Lee or any other Southern leader guilty of
treason.
" Treason is a crime unknown to the genius of our insti
231 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
tutions, sir," said one gentleman, in a lofty way; "'and no
act can be treason if it is sustained by any considerable body
of the people."
"We were all for the war," responded a Convention delgate; " I was opposed to secession, but I could n't do any
other way than follow the State; and what I did we all did,
- we all did, sir,- we all were for the war; and if you try
31r. Davis you must try all of us,- all of us, sir."
" sir. Davis was always a fourth-rate man," observed the
judge; "and the government would give him more prominence than he deserves if it tried him for treason."
"He ought to be hung," answered the colonel, "but not
for treason. He was the marplot of our revolution; his obstinacy ruined our cause, and he deserves hanging for that
if for anything, though I've no idea he will ever be harmed."
Several of us fell into a chat about the various generals
of the two armies. Lee they all considered the greatest
man of the age. Grant they did n't call much of a soldier;
but one of them said he "told a d-d deal of truth" when
he wrote that the South had recruited from the cradle and
the grave.  Sherman, one more observed, "is a child of hell;
he could n't be a gentleman if he would, and I'm d-d if I
believe he would if he could." Slocum had always treated
the South well, and they hoped he would carry the day in
Now York. HIoward seemed a clever man and a good officer, but " is soft on the nigger."  Kilpatrick is "a fine officer
and a d-n mean soldier."   Sheridan is "a lucky cuss."
Of their own officers they said Jo Johnston was loved like a
brother.  Bragg is "an old ass who ought to be hung for
blundering."  Hardee is "only so-so."  Beauregard knows
something about forts and guns, but nothing about an army.
Wheeler and his men were "the G-d d-est set of thieves
and cutthroats out of jail."
At Camak three or four of us had some conversation about
the freedmen. They will not work, I was told, and near
232 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF GEORGIA.
Augusta they have taken forcible possession of several plan  tations and will not allow any white persons thereon. One
delegate said a lnegro woman living ten miles above Augusta
was nearly horsewhipped to death last week by her master;
and another had heard that a negro man on a plantation
some miles below the city was recently shot for claiming his
freedom.
The  gentlemen  pretty generally agreed  that Andrew
Johnson had disappointed the South, being less harsh than
it was expected he would be.  Two men thought he was
figuring for the Southern vote in 1868, and one of them be lieved the South and the Democratic party could elect him
then.
After five hours' waiting we took the cars for Maysville,
and made our thirteen miles in an hour and a half, to find
one small hack waiting to carry ten of us to Sparta, twelve
miles distant.   We managed it, however, the five elderly
gentlemen taking the inside.   They were all Convention
delegates, - a railroad president and ex-State judge, a colonel and wealthy planter, a Methodist minister, a doctor, and
a farmer. We of the outside were, an ex-Rebel general,
who sat with the driver; a negro boy, who sat behind on
the baggage; and an ex-editor of one of the Augusta papers,
an ex-Rebel quartermaster, and the Yankee correspondent,
who sat atop. Our driver was a wide-awake young fellow,
who put us along at the rate of five miles an hour. Our
position on top the coach was pleasant enough, except that
the roof was weak, and there was danger of breaking through;
the road was in bad order, and there was a fair prospect that
we should turn over; the evening was dark, and there was
good chance that the numerous low-hanging boughs under
which we passed might brush us off or hang us up like
Absolom. However, I made the trip with no worse accident
than gaining a hole in my scalp and a bruise over my eye.
The editor and the quartermaster did most of the talking.
233 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
They gave an hour to the relation of personal incidents of
service in the Rebel army. The quartermaster had barely
escaped capture on two occasions. At one time he held a
white handkerchief in his hand and was ready to surrender,
but the soldiers whom he saw did n't see him. He remained
in service till the end of the war, and was with Lee at the
breaking up of the army of Virginia.
The editor said the war would have closed two years ago
but for the women of the South, and the negroes could have
closed it in six months at any time by laying down the shovel
and the hoe.
The quartermaster expressed surprise that the negroes
show so little gratitude to their old owners, and said that
those for whom most had been done were now the most
ungrateful.
The general remarked that the vote of the State in elect
ing the Convention was light, - "everybody knew there was
a certain disagreeable work to do."
It was about eight o'clock by the time we were unloaded
at Sparta, and we left it at three o'clock this morning.  The
town itself may be very nice, but its hotel is very bad, and
the landlord was very drunk last night, and the talk of the
loungers in the office was very hostile to the government.
The principal sober man about the house seemed to be Sam,
a coal-black negro of twenty-five or thereabouts. Hie was
lively and accommodating, and his orders secured us a passably good supper and a lunch before starting this morning.
A ride of twenty-five miles in an old ambulance in company with the colonel, the editor, and the negro boy, brought
me into Milledgeville mid-forenoon of the sixth day from
Charleston, at an aggregate expense of a good many bruises,
a considerable lameness, a bad cold, a very sore throat, a
moderate attack of chills and fever, and fifty-seven dollars
in greenbacks.   When I next make that trip I shall try
some other route.
234 
FIRST GLIMPSES OF GEORGIA.
However, the view from the brow of the hill two miles
northeast of town was a luxury to eyes and heart aweary of
the dull, leaden, eternal monotony of Carolina pine-swamps
and Carolina pine-barrens.  It was almost a New England
scene,- the Oconee River glimmering through green trees,
woody hills, and rolling fallow lands on either side; forests
and meadows alternating to the right and to the left; a gently rising hill beyond the river; the town embowered in its
wealth of trees; windows glistening in the sunshine; a church
lifting its spire serenely skyward; the white house corners
showing among the trees; countrymen driving into town;
cows feeding in the fields beyond; the darling New England
charm of blue hills rising in the background; and, over all,
the calmest and loveliest of October mornings!
Our driver was William, present freedman, former slave,
who marched over our road twelve years ago in a negrotrader's chain-gang.  "Dat ting come no mo'," said he, with
some emphasis. Curiously enough, he found no trouble in
making a living, and had no desire to be re-enslaved!
The two delegates concurred in the opinion that the government ought to pay the South at least one hundred million
dollars indemnity money; and one of them expressed the
belief that Congress would ultimately take this view of the
case, and appropriate the money.
I asked some questions about the Georgia school system,
and remarked that I hoped the time would soon come when
school-houses would be as numerous in Georgia as in MIassachusetts.
"Well, I hope it never will come," said one of them;
"popular education's all a d-d humbug, in my judgment."
"I think so too," answered the other.  "I used to be in
favor of it; but since I've seen what it leads to in the North,
I'm opposed to it."
"That's just it," concluded the first; "it's well enough
to give boys who are to be professional men a good educa
235 
THE SOUTH SINCE THIE WAR.
tion; but reading, writing, and arithmetic are full as much
as ought to be taught the common people."
The capital of Georgia is simply the capital, and nothing
more. It has no manufacturing establishments, and is the
centre of no trade. Its only railroad connection is with the
South; that is, a single track runs up here from Macon.
Some time this line will probably be built through to a point
on the Augusta and Atlanta Road, but even then the capital
will be only a half-way station on a small cross-road.
The quiet and aristocratic little city is regularly laid out,
with a deal more show, indeed, than is necessary; for all its
business is done in one block, and most of its residences are
on one street. It has three principal features,- the public
square, the state-house, and the hotel. The square is large
and rolling, and will unquestionably some time be handsome.
In its centre is the state-house. At one corner is the ruin
of the magazine. On one side is the ruin of the arsenal.
On another side are the three churches of the place,- small,
plain, cheap wooden buildings, occupied respectively by the
Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Methodists. The statehouse is a solid and inelegant pile of brick, hidden beneath
a dirty-brown stucco. It is at present very much out of repair, but could never have been either graceful or impressive.
It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that the city
exists for the benefit of the keeper of the hotel, who has
served his State in the army and in Fort Delaware, and is
now anxious to serve it in the Legislature; who keeps a
good house, unblushingly pockets twenty-eight dollars per
week from each customer, and carries himself with the utmost nonchalance, knowing that, whether you will or no, you
must be content with his terms or leave the city.
236 
THE STATE CONVENTION.
xxVI.
ORGANIZATION AND P.ERSONN~L OF THiE GEORGIA STATE
CONVENTION.
AIILLEDGEVILLE, October 27, 1865.
HE  State Convention met on Wednesday,  the 25th
instant, in the hall of the lower house of the General
Assembly.  Unlike the Conventions of either South Carolina
or North Carolina, it was, as seemed to me most proper,
called to order by the Provisional Governor.
After the list of the various counties of the State had been
called, and the delegates had answered to their names, he
said, " I am instructed to require of you to take the amnesty
oath."  There was no such oath-taking in either of the Carolina Conventions. On his making this announcement, the
delegates came forward in companies of eight or ten, and the
oath was administered by Provisional Judge Harris, of this
city.
Herschel V. Johnson was then elected President of the
Convention, - there being no other candidate, though twentyseven delegates insisted upon voting for Judge Jenkins of
Augusta. MIr. Johnson's speech on taking the chair was
very brief, and its pith lies in this paragraph:  "AVe are convened under extraordinary circumstances, and
charged with grave and responsible trusts. The past, with its
scenes of chastisement and of sorrow, the present, with its stern
and tangible realities, admonish us to act with caution and wisdom. It is not for me to say what you ought or ought not to do.
That is your province. Upon you rests the responsibility to a
confiding constituency. I may be permitted, however, to suggest
that the duty of the Convention is clearly indicated by surrounding circumstances. Let us do what those circumnstances indicate.
Let us do nothing more, lest, by attempting too much, we should
engender schism and excitement, and hazard the usefulness of 
THlE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
our deliberations.  We cannot correct or cure the errors of the
past; but it is our duty, as far as possible, to rescue ourselves and
our posterity from their consequences.  Let us address ourselves
to the task with the dignity of manly purpose, humbly relying
upon the Father of light to illumine our understandings."
The Convention numbers exactly three hundred delegates,
-of whom two hundred and seventy-seven have answered at
roll-call, though two hundred and seventy-two is the aggregate
of the highest vote yet cast. There are, apparently, many
seedy politicians among them. The people have not so
thoroughly broken away from their leaders as in the Carolinas.  There are also not a few exceedingly rough backwoods
fellows who never saw Milledgeville before, and probably
never will see it again, and don't know how to live while
here now. On the whole, the body does not give one a particularly favorable impression of the intelligence of the people
of the State. It is so large, however, that all this may be
true, and yet leave room for the fact that there are many
able and intelligent men in it, -  thoug,h they are not, generally speaking, the ones who do most of the talking.
The journal of the secret proceedings of the Secession
Convention which met January 16, 1861, shows that the
vote on the test resolution, declariing, it the right and duty of
the State to secede; was 166 to 130. The vote on the passage of the ordinance of secession was 208 to 89.  It will be
seen that in the three days intervening between these two
votes, forty delegates who originally voted against the right
and duty of secession gave way under the tremendous pressure of the time. Three days later in the session the eng,iossed ordinance was brought in and signed, in presence of
the Governor, the commissioners from various States, the
judges of the Supreme Court, and a packed gallery of the
beauty  and wealth of the city.  A  large number of the
eighty-nine gave way under this pressure, but some still remained firm. On the following day six more gave way,
238 
THE SECESSION CONVENTION.
though they entered a formal protest on the journal. Effoibrts
then began to dragoon the refractory members into subnmis sion. Propositions were made to formally send a list of the
delegates who refused to sign the ordinance to the governors
of the several Southern States; to distribute photographic
copies of the ordinance, with its signatures and blank spaces
to distribute twenty-five thousand copies of a list of the
names of the stubborn delegates, etc.  So far as appears of
record, none of these propositions were actually put to a vote,
but they produced their effect; and, day by day, the oppositionists were brought around and gave the document their
signatures, so that finally it bore the names of all but about
twenty.  The position of this little band of the faithful was
anything but pleasant.   Even  those who  simply  voted
against the test resolution of the first day were snubbed on
all sides. These others suffered all kinds of indirect, and
some kinds of direct, insult; some of them kept a quasi connection with the Convention, but the leaders retired from
the city and took no notice of its action.
Twenty-one of the delegates in the Secession Convention
are here now, namely: D. R. Adams, of Putnam County; E.
B. Arnold, of Henry; D. A. Cochran, of Terrell; R. J. Cochran, of Wilkinson; N. ML. Crawford, of Greene; J. A. Giles,
of Houston; A. H. Kenan, of Baldwin; Herschel V. Johnson
and George Stapleton, of Jefferson; H. D.  McDaniel, of
W,alton; Rowan Pafford, of Coffee; P. Reynolds, of Newton;
Thomas P. Saffold, of Morgan; J. P. Simmons and R. D.
AVinn, of Gwinnette; D. Taliaferro, of Whitefield; N. Tucker,
of Laurens; H. D. Williams, of Harris; William Willingham, of Oglethorpe; David Whelbchel, of Hall; and Jacob
YoungD, of Irwin.
Of these delegates, MIr. Giles was an original Secessionist,
but the other twenty voted against the resolution declaratory
of the right to secede.  Of this twenty there were fifteen
who voted against the passage of the ordinance of secession;
239 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Mlessrs. Giles, Crawford, McDaniel, Saffold, and Williams
voted for it; and MAr. Adams did not vote at all.
Honorable Joshua Hill, delegate from Morgan County,
was in the Federal Congress at the time of the secession of
Georgia. Honorable A. H. Kenan, of Baldwin, was a member of the first Rebel Congress, as well as of the Provisional
Congress.  Honorable Hines Holt, of Mluscogee, was also
in the first Rebel Congress. Honorable James L. Seward,
of Thomas, was also formerly a member of the Federal
Congress.
The inside of the state-house corresponds to its outside.
The halls are low, narrow, and dark, with common plank
floors. The stairways are of wood, and very narrow and
cramped. The basement is a collection of old store-rooms,
filled with all sorts of rubbish. In the second story are the
library and the executive offices. In the third story are the
legislative halls, - in the space between them being numerous apple, cigar, and peanut stands. The Representatives'
Hall, in which the Convention meets, is large, square, and
squat, the ceiling being about twenty feet.   Opposite the
speaker's desk is a little gallery, so far below the ceiling that
a man of moderate height can nearly stand erect in it.  Behind the speaker's chair is a full-length portrait of one of the
early Governors of the State; on the right is a full-length
of Franklin, and on the left a full-length of Lafayette, each
remarkable for size rather than quality.  The Senate Chamber is of somewhat more cheerful appearance than the other,
and is ornamented with six immense full-length portraits of
the job-work style,- Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, &c.
"I'11 be d-d if I vote for any man who did n't go with
the State," said one of the delegates while the canvass for
officers was going on; in accordance with which spirit the
secretary is a gentleman who was a colonel in the Rebel
army, and the doorkeeper a gentleman who lost an arm in
the service.
240 
THE LEADERS OF THE CONVENTION.
The Governor's.message was sent in immediately after
the election of officers had been concluded. It is a brief;
practical, straighltforward document.    The Governor says
nothingo about secession or the war, and what he has to say
about slavery and the freedmen is in this paragraph: -
" Slavery has been abolished in these States.  Georgia, in Convention, is called upon to put on record an acknowledgment of
the accomplished fact, to give assurance to mankind that involuntary servitude shall not hereafter, in any form, or by virtue of
any device, exist within her borders; to enjoin on succeeding
legislators that they shall guard by law the community from the
evils of sudden emancipation; shall secure those emerging from
bondage in the enjoyment of their legal ri,ghts; and shall protect
the hunmble, the ignorant, and weak from wrong and aggression."
Provisional Governor James Johnson is a plain and un assuming gentleman of forty-five to fifty years of ag,e, of me dium size and height, who dresses throughout in black, has
a regular and pleasantly inexpressive face, wears short chin
and throat whiskers, and is slightly bald.
Herschel V. Johnson, late Governor and candidate for the
Vice-Presidency, is a man who leaves his mark upon everything lie touches.  He is short, and of aldermanic build and
proportions. He has a ponderous lower jaw, flabby cheeks,
a large and sharp, though not a long nose, a cold, steely eye,
and a hi,gh, retreating forehead, broad at the base and narrow above.  The noticeable peculiarity in the shape of his
head is that it is very large on a line drawn through the eyes
and ears, and recedes on all sides toward the crown. His
face is cleanly shaven, he wears gold-bowed spectacles, and
hlie has long black hair. He looks like a man of great abilities, strong force, and immense vitality.  His manners are
courteous, but in no respect genial or winning. He seems
reserved, and appears to have very few warm, personal
friends, though everybody professes respect for him as a
lawyer and a statesman.
II
241
.I
p
i
I 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Honorable Charles J. Jenkins is the leader of the Convention. He would have been made its President had he allowed his friends to have their way. The whole business
is in the hands of one committee of sixteen, of which he is
the head. He has been one of the members of the Supreme
Court of the State, is everywhere respected and venerated,
ard is mentioned in connection with the Governorship and
the United States Senate. He is a lame man, who must be
considerably over sixty years of age, yet who has still great
force and vigor. In figure he is under medium height, and
of square and compact build. He has a full, strongly lined,
fatherly face, and snow-white hair and whiskers. He ran
for the Convention of 1860-61 as a Union man and was
defeated, but was sent to this without a show of opposition.
His home is in Augusta.
Honorable Joshua Hill is only second in influence to Judge
Jenkins.  He was a member of Congress in 1860 - 61, and
his course in the stormy days of that session is matter of
honorable record.   "Had there been three other men as
brave as Josh Hill we could have saved the State from secession," said a very intelligent gentleman to me yesterday.
MIr. Hill is a fine type of physical manhood, over six feet
in height, with deep chest, broad shoulders, erect figure,
and a bearing that commands respect everywhere. He has
a large mouth, large nose, high cheek-bones, forehead very
prominent in the eyebrows, - in a word, his face is as rugged a one as could be found in a long day's travel.  His in tellectual ability is considerable; but his distinguishing char acteristic, his friends say, is "plain horse sense."  He  lives
at Madison, the county seat of Miorgan County, and is a man
of about fifty years of age.
The leader of the lobby, and therefore entitled to mention
with the members of the Convention, is ex-Governor Joseph
E. Brown. He has three points that the most unobservant
observer catches at the first glance, - a large mouth, a long
242 
REPEAL OF THE SECESSION ORDINANCE.
neck, and a narrow and hollow chest.  Besides this, he is
tall and very slim, ha~ a pleasant face, a courteous smile for
everybody, a large and strong nose, dark gray eyes, and a
good forehead. His hair is just beginning to turn; he wears
it rather long, and its end is rolled under in his neck.  He
is clean shaven, except his throat, on which he wears a short
gray whisker. His manner is easy, and his talk is plausible
and apparently sincere. He declares himself a firm supporter
of the President's reconstruction policy, and has more personal popularity than any other man in Georgia. Everybody seems to concur in the assertion that he managed her
finances better than any other Governor they ever had. He
still occupies the Executive Mansion, Governor Johnson
simply having rooms there.
The Convention attracts more public notice than did those
at Columbia and Raleigh, -the lobby representation in the
war-debt interest being larger than in either of the Carolina
Conventions, and the excitement of the debates furnishing a
grateful relief to the monotony of the city's dull life.  The
daily attendance thus far averages about one hundred and
fifty persons, one fourth of them, perhaps, being ladies.
XXVII.
SECESSION AND SLAVERY.
MILLEDGEVILLE, October 28, 1865.
HTE question of undoing the work of the Secession Con     vention, which occupied two wrathful days at Raleigh,
here scarcely occupied two minutes. The committee of sixteen was named at the opening of the second day's session,
and before night Judge Jenkins reported the following ordinance: -
243
.f.I.:'. 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
" TVe, the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention at our seat
of Government, do declare and ordain, That an ordinance adopted
by the same people, in Convention, on the nineteenth day of January, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-one, entitled' An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Georgia and other
States united with her under a compact of government entitled
the Constitution of the United States of America'; also an ordinance, adopted by the same on the sixteenth day of March, in
the year last aforesaid, entitled' An ordinance to adopt and ratify
the Constitution of the Confederate States of America'; and also
all ordinances and resolutions of the same, adopted between the
sixteenth day of January and the twenty-fourth day of March, in
the year aforesaid, subversive of, or antagonistic to, the civil and
military authority of the government of the United States of
America, under the Constitution thereof, be, and the same are,
hereby repealed."
As soon as it was read, the chairman of the committee
askled its adoption, and it was at once unanimously passed
by a viva voce vote without debate, and with as little apparent interest as though it had been a mere resolution of
inquiry.
There was no approving concourse of dignitaries, no ratifying roar of cannon, no packed gallery of beauty and applause, no parchment ordinance for all men to sign, andHeaven give pity - not even a poor " yea and nay" record
on the journal!
Joshua Hill rose as soon as its passage was announced,
and gave notice that he should move to reconsider, in order
to substitute for the phrase "be, and the same are, hereby
repealed," the words "are now, and always have been, null
and void."  The former is the language in Mississippi and
South Carolina, the latter that of North Carolina, while that
of Alabama is "be, and the same is, hereby declared to be
null and void." MIr. Hill's motion to substitute the strong
language of the old North State gave promise of an interesting debate, and the gallery was crowded next morning when
244 
HIARMONY V~RSUS PRINCIPLES.
he called up his motion. But he bowed down and took
upon his neck the yoke of the Secessionists for the sake of
"harmony," and everybody went away disappointed, and to
disappointment a few added disgust.
MIr. lill said: "I gave notice on yesterday, that I would
this morning move the reconsideration of the ordinance re pealing the ordinance of the 19th of January, 1861, and
subsequent ordinances and resolutions. I made this motion
in no captious spirit, and with no desire to make a procrus tean bed for any man to be laid upon. It was made with no
purpose of producing schism between those who approved
the secession ordinance and those who condemned it. My
object was to give expression to my individual sentiment
upon the subject. It is my habit to take little account of
considerations of policy, and this is a habit which I think I
shall adhere to; but on this occasion, at the solicitation of
many friends who four years ago agreed cordially with me
in opinion upon the subject of secession, and for a variety of
reasons, the best of which is the harmony of this body, and
the danger of distracting its counsels, I have been induced to
reconsider my motion. The appeals of my friends, and the
inducements they suggest, do not fall unheeded upon me. I
declare upon this floor, that even after the sorrows and disasters which have come upon this land, I have no personal
bitterness towards any man in heaven or on earth who contributed to bring about the secession of this State. There
are to-day higher, nobler considerations than the mere discussion of this subject which weigh upon my mind; and it
is not my purpose, nor is it my feeling, to limit my associations with men politically by the test of catholicity in regard
to opinions upon this subject.  I would not wound the feelings of any man. I am frank to say that my association
with men who have disagreed with me upon this subject,
both in my own county and elsewhere, is and has been of
the most cordial character.  3My labors in this body shall be
245 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
bent to one single purpose, and that is the earliest admittance of Georgia into the Union, and the restoration of her
ancient rights, so far as may be permitted. That is nmy
earnest desire. I have no friends to reward or enemies to
punish. I have not yet combined with any political organization. I do not say what I shall do in the future. I amn
unwilling to be the first to produce dissension in this body,
and I therefore withdraw my motion to reconsider."
Once more the people must lift the requiem for the Lost
Leader. Possibly MIr. Hill could not have carried his
point, but he could at least have made a gallant fight for the
sound doctrine. I recall what brave old Nat Boyden said
in the Raleigh Convention, when the trimmers appealed to
him to accept the repealing phrase for the sake of "harmony":  "Gentlemen, unanimity in a good deed is a thing
for praise; but in any other, it is a public misfortune, for
severest censure." Georgia went out of the Union by a mere
repeal, and she comes back by another mere repeal. Who
shall sit in the high place and keep the tally of repeals? Is
there any abandonment, in her action, of the old heresy of
State sovereignty? Did the war settle nothing but the nation's physical supremacy? And there was not vigor enough
in this former leader to even insist upon a simple vote to
reconsider!
The question of the language to use in acknowledging the
abolition of slavery, and declaring its prohibition forever,
which occupied one long and exciting day at Columbia, here
scarcely occupied one minute. In the new Bill of Rights,
as it came from the committee of sixteen, is this clause:
" 20. The government of the United States having, as a war
measure, proclaimed all slaves held or owned in this State emancipated fi-om slavery, and having carried that proclamation into
full practical effect, there shall henceforth be within the State of
Georgia neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime after legal conviction thereof; provided, that
a
246 
THE DAVIS PARDON QUESTION.
this acquiescence in the action of the government of the United
States is not intended to operate as a relinquishment, or waiver,
or estoppel of such claiin for compensation of loss sustained by
reason of the emancipation of his slaves as any citizen of Georgia
may hereafter make upon the justice and magnanimity of that
government."
The clause was reached at exactly five o'clock this evening.  The clerk read it in his high monotone,- holding the
paper in one hand and a candle in the other, for the hall
is low and dark; the President responded, as he had nineteen times before in the last half-hour, "If there be no objection, and the chair hears none, the clause will be considered as agreed to, and the clerk will read the next in order."
There was no objection, and the clerk went on with his reading. So, without a word to warm the blood of friend or
foe, the great Empire State of the South grudgingly took up
the banner of liberty and fell into the ranks of progression.
XXVIII.
ASKING PARDON FOR JEFF DAVIS.
MJILLEDGEVILLE, October 31, 1865.
ARLY in the morning of the second day's session of the
Convention, 3Ir. E. C. Anderson, of Savannah, late
colonel in the Rebel army, moved a resolution for the appointment of a committee to memorialize the President in
behalf of Jeff Davis and others.
The Convention took fire at once, and a motion was made
to lay the resolution on the table.  This was lost by 95 to
148, and an hour's excited debate followed.
Sir. Anderson hoped gentlemen would consider the condition of Mr. Davis and the other persons whose names were
0
247 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
mentioned in the resolution. He could see no reason why
they were held in confinement, and he thought the great
government of the United States should be magnanimous
enough to set them at liberty.
Mr. Joshua Hill believed this question should not be
forced upon the Convention. The body had not met to askpardon for anybody, but to do what was necessary to restore
Georgia to the Union.  ]Moreover, the President understands
his business and does not ask our advice. Hie well knows
why we are here, and the voice of the Convention on this
question will pass him as the idle wind.
Mr. Ira E. Dupree, of Twiggs County, indorsed the President as a wise and merciful man, who was doing all for the
South that she could reasonably ask. He himself had once
hated Mr. Johnson, but now he believed him the man for the
times. He was glad, however, that the resolution had been
introduced. He believed it was right and proper to pass it.
In order that the South might love the old flag once more,
it was necessary that no more blood be spilled. He hoped
everybody would be pardoned, and was certain no one could
blame the people for asking the pardon of their late ruler.
Mr. C. H. Hopkins, of Pierce County, who will run for
Congress as an out-and-out Union man, thought the government should be allowed to take its own course in regard to
Jeff Davis. MIr. Stephens had already been discharged; and
that was right, for he did all he could to keep Georgia from
seceding, and truthfully warned the people of the consequences of so doing. As for Davis, he would never ask for
his pardon. WVe need have no fears but that all will be properly done. We have an Andrew Jackson at the head of the
government, whom noth-ing can sway from his purposes. If
he intends to release Davis, he will do it. If he means to
have him tried, he will be tried. The firmness of the Executive was recently shown in his refusing to interfere to
save even a woman from the punishment due her crimes.
248 
GEORGIA LOYALTY.
If we arrest the trial of Davis now, supposing our petition
could have that effect, what would the world say? Why,
that we knew he was guilty of treason, and endeavored in
this roundabout way to shield him from trial and punishment.
WVe were deceived by pretended statesmen into the dreadful
contest from which we have just emerged. They told us there
would be no war, no blockade, no bloodshed; that twenty
men could whip a hundred. Now let the leader of all these
so-called statesmen be tried. I want him tried, so that we
may see if it will be decided that a State has no right to secede. If I were him, I would demand a trial, and if found
guilty of treason would meet my fate like a man.
MIr. J. D. Mathews, of Oglethorpe, the leader of the impracticables, an ex-colonel of the Rebel army, and a man of
most harsh and forbidding manners, would vote heartily for
the resolution. The question involved was not one of principle, but of asking pardon for unfortunate gentlemen now
languishing in prison.  Once they were our representative
men on the battle-field and in the council-chamber, - representative of a government to which we were all pledged.
That government is so deeply buried that even the second
resurrection cannot reach it, and these men now stand only
as the representatives of a cause for which we all battled,a cause which we and they alike thought sacred. (Applause
on the floor.) Why should we not ask this favor? We
have been pardoned by the national Executive, and by our
pardon wve become free and sovereign citizens, clothed with
all the rights and privileges pertaining to Americans. Among
the most sacred of these rights is that of petition; and all
we mean to do in passing and carrying out this resolution
is to exercise that sacred right.   I understand that the
President of the United States is inclined to mercy; that his
policy is one of leniency; and I believe that the presentation
of the petition proposed by this resolution will rather
strengthen his hands than weaken and embarrass him. These
1 1 
11 *
249 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
men, as I have said, are no more representative men of the
Confederacy, but they represent the cause for which we battled.  We  have been pardoned, and have resumed all our
rights as citizens of the United States; and I declare that I
will not be deterred from asking pardon for these unfortunate gentlemen now languishing in military prisons. (Hearty
applause throughout the house.) 3ir. Davis is no more a
traitor than the rest of us. Nor need he nor any of us be
ashamed of our records.   We  have illustrated Southern
manhood on a hundred battle-fields, and we have shown
that we can honorably submit to the decrees of God. Now
let us come up as men, not as criminals for a favor, but
as men for our rights, and ask the pardon of our late and
beloved leaders.
MIr. Hill again explained that it did not seem proper to
him that a Convention called as this was should meddle with
this question. The differences between the people of the
State should be allayed, not excited, and no good could come
of this discussion.
MIr. Solomon Cohen, of Savannah, and late postmaster
there, strongly urged the passage of the resolution. True
sympathy for the unfortunate gentlemen named in it demanded that it should be passed.  He thought the President
had done nobly, and he could not believe a respectful petition would embarrass him.  If this resolution is not passed,
after what has been said here, it will go forth to the world
that Georgia, which did so much to place SIr. Davis in his
position utterly abandons him in his hour of defeat and calamity.
This closed the debate. A motion to indefinitely postpone
the resolution.received 56 votes; and it was then passed by
a viva-voce vote.
The committee was appointed, -  Ir. Anderson, chairman, -and this morning the following memorial was reported:
250 
THE DAVIS PARDON MEMORIAL.
"To  His EXCELLENCY  ANDREW  JonHsoN, President  of the
United States:
" The delegates of the State of Georgia, in Convention assem bled, do earnestly invoke the Executive clemency in behalf of
Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and James A. Seddon
of Virginia, A. G. ilcGrath of South Carolina, David Yulee of
Florida, and H. W. Mercer of Georgia, now confined as prisoners,
and all others similarly circumstanced.
"Your Excellency has been pleased to restore Mr. Stephens to
his liberty. He returns to the grateful people of this State as a
solemn pledge of the magnanimity which rules the public coun cils; and his great name and influence will be potent to revive
the amniity of the past, and fructify the wise and generous policy
which your Excellency has inaugurated.  Emboldened  by this
example, impelled by the purity of our motives, and stimulated
by the prayers of a numerous people, we appeal for clemency in
behalf of the distinguished persons we have named. Restore them
to libertv and to the embraces of their families, translate them
fi-om captivity to the light of freedom and hope, and the gratitude
of the prisoners will be mingled with the joyful acclamations which
shall ascend to Heaven from the hearts of this people.
"Jefferson Davis was elected to his high position by our suffrages and in response to our wishes.  We imposed upon him a
responsibility which he did not seek. Originally opposed to the
sectional policy to which public opinion, with irresistible power,
finally drove him, he became the exponent of our principles and
the leader of our cause.    He simply responded to the united
voice of his section. If he, then, is guilty, so are we; we were
the principals, he was our agent. Let not the retribution of a
mighty nation be visited upon his head, while we, who urged him
to his destiny are suffered to escape. The liberal clemency of
the government has been extended over us; we breathe the air
and experience the blessings of freedom; we therefore ask that
the leader, who, in response to the democratic instincts of his nature, the principles of his party, and the solicitations of his section,
became the head and front of our offending, shall not now be
bruised for our iniquities or punished for our transgressions.
"M r. Davis was not the leader of a feeble and temporary insurrection; he was the representative of great ideas and the expo
251 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAP.
nent of principles which stirred and consolidated a numerous and
intelligent people. This people was not his dupe. They pursued
the cause they adopted of their own free will, and he did not draw
them on, but followed after them. It is for these reasons that we
invoke the Executive clemency in his behalf. His framne is feeble; his health is delicate; all broken by the storms of state, he
languishes out in captivity a vicarious punishment for the acts
of his people. Thousands of hearts are touched with his distress,
thousands of prayers ascend to Heaven for his relief. We invoke
in his behalf the generous exercise of the prerogative to pardon
which the form and principles of the Constitution offer as a beneficent instrument to a merciful Executive. We ask the continuance of that career of clemlency which your Excellency
has begun, and which alone, we earnestly believe, can secure
the true unity and lasting greatness of this nation.  Dispensing
that mercy which is inculcated by the example of our great Master on high, your name will be transmitted to your countrymen
as one of the benefactors of mankind. The Constitution of our
country, renewed and fortified by your measures, will once more
extend its protection over a contented and happy people, founded
as it will be upon consent and affection, and'resting like the great
arch of the heavens equally upon all."'
The memorial was adopted without debate or objection.
It indicates that the people of Georgia are not likely to fail
of their desires through any excess of modesty.
252 
CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION.
XXIX.
AIENDING THE STATE CONSTITUTION.
MIILLEDGEvILLE, Novemnber 4, 1865.
THE Convention has finished the work of amending the
Constitution.  I shall note but briefly what that work
has been.
The first article embodies the Bill of Rights, from which
the following significant clause has been dropped: "A government which knowingly and persistently denies or withholds protection from the governed, when within its power,
thereby releases them from the obligation of obedience."
The clause heretofore reported prohibiting slavery is in this
article.
The second article relates to thie Legislature, and it occupied the attention of the Convention for two whole days.
A strong effort was made by several leading delegates to
secure a reduction of one third in the number of senators
and one half in the number of representatives. The general
question of a reduction was agreed to, after considerable debate, by a small majority. The proposed change in the Senate was readily made; but a four hours' discussion showed
that it was impossible to reconcile the different views in respect to the House, and the whole subject was finally tabled
by a vote of 164 to 107. The number of legislators, therefore, remains as heretofore, - 44 senators and 169 representatives.  The sessions of the Legislature are to be biennial,
beginning on the first Thursday of November, and continuing forty days.
The basis of representation is "representative population."
Propositions to change this to "white population," and to
"aggregate population," were lost without a division of the
house.
253 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The clause respecting the powers and duties of the Legislature in regard to the freedmen is in section five of this
article, and reads in this wise:   "5. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly at its next
session, and thereafter as the public welfare may require, to provide by law for the government of firee persons of color; for the
protection and security of their persons and property, -guarding
them and the State against any evil that may arise from their
sudden emancipation, and prescribing in what cases their testimony shall be admitted in the courts; for the regulation of their
transactions witlh citizens; for the legalizing of their existing, and
the contracting and solemnization of their future marital relations,
and connected therewith their rights of testamentary capacity;
and for the regulation or prohibition of their immigration into this
State from other States of the Union or elsewhere. And it shall
fiirther be the duty of the General Asseimbly to confer jurisdiction
upon courts now existing, or to create county courts with jurisdiction, in criminal cases excepted from the exclusive jurisdiction of
the Superior Court, and in civil cases whereto free persons of color
may be parties."
It will be observed that herein is an implied discrimination against the freedmen, "prescribing in what cases their
testimony shall be admitted in the courts." Just how much
this may mean depends of course upon the Legislature; but
it is clear that the Convention is of opinion that the negro's.
right to give evidence should be restricted in some degree.
The third article defines the executive powers. A proposition to make the Governor's term of office four years led to
a protracted debate, and was finally lost by a vote of 117 to
161. The term, therefore, remains two years as heretofore;
but a new clause provides that no man shall be eligible for
more than two terms till after the expiration of four years
from the end of his second term. A proposition to create
the office of Lieutenanit-Governor was defeated without a
division.
The fourth, or judicial, article occupied the attention of
254 
CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION.
the Convention for two days. The judges of the Supreme
Court, three in number, whose term of office is not less than
six years, heretofore appointed by the Governor, are here after, by a vote of 208 to 62, to be elected by the General
Assembly; while the judges of the Superior, or Criminal
Courts, heretofore elected by the General Assembly, are
hereafter, by a vote of 142 to 109, to be elected by the people on the first Wednesday in January of every fourth year.
The election of the State's attorney and the solicitors has
also been given to the people.   Heretofore the Superior
Court has not had jurisdiction in criminal cases relating to
negroes, but the restriction is now removed.
The fifth article embodies several general provisions.
The clause instructing the General Assembly to provide,
by an adequate endowment, for the early resumption of exercises at the State University led to a two hours' debate.
Happily for the future of the State it was adopted, but by
the close vote of 138 to 131.
The question, Shall the State offices be vacated? which
produced several hours' talk at Raleigh, could here find but
one supporter, who was allowed to speak an hour, after
which his proposition declaring them vacant went to the
table all but unanimously.
. The qualifications of electors remain as heretofore,- free
white male citizens, of the age of twenty-one years, two
years resident in the State, and six months in the county
where offering to vote. A proposition requiring that the
people shall vote tiva voce was defeated by about three to
one.
One new section of this article expressly declares that the
supreme law of the State shall be the Constitution of the
United States and the laws and treaties made in pursuance
thereof.
Another section ratifies so much of the legislation of the
last four years as is not incompatible with the Constitution
255 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
of the United States and the laws thereof; and still another
ratifies the judgments, decrees, orders, and other proceedings
of the courts of the State since the passage of the secession
ordinance.
This article and the Constitution ends with the following
new and suggestive clause, which was adopted without debate:
"The marriage relation between white persons and persons of
Afi-ican descent is forever prohibited; and the General Assembly
shall enact laws for the punishment of officers who solemnize such
marriages, or knowingly issue licenses therefor, and all such marriages shall be null and void."
XXX.
THE MiINOR WORK OF THE CONVENTION.
MILLEDGEVILLE, November 6, 1865.
N  ordinance  was passed which legalizes and makes
valid the criminal code of the State adopted about
four years ago.
An ordinance was passed which gives validity to all private contracts made during the war, and provides that they
shall be settled with due regard to justice and equity.
An ordinance was passed, requesting the General Assembly, at its first session, to provide for the support and maintenance of the indigent widows and orphans of the deceased
soldiers of the State.
A resolution was passed requesting the Provisional Governor, by proclamation or otherwise, to provide for the organization in each county of the State of one or more cornpaniies of volunteer militia.
An ordinance was passed, after much debate, suspending
256 
THE CONGRESSIONAL QUESTION.
the sale of property seized on execution till after the ad journment of the first session of the Legislature, or until the
Legislature by law otherwise directs.
There is an excited state of feeling onl the subject of Con gressional representation, in which all classes of men in the
Convention share.  "We must have our representatives at
Washington on the opening day," says 3nIatthews of Ogle thorpe; "and I believe the Administration will sustain us
against the radicals and fanatics of the North in our effort to
get into Congress." There was a good deal of remark to
this effect; but another set of men found voice through a
delegate named Kenan, who was in the first Rebel Congress.  " I would not be in such haste," said he, "but
would take time for due consideration; and when we have
elected our best men, let them go there in a dignified manner,
not to ask favors of any party, but to demand their rights."
However, there was still another class which found voice in
what was said by Mr. WVright, of Coweta:  "We are. living
under a military despotism which can't be endured; let us
get our rights first, and attend to our dignities afterward."
Joshua Hill, who appears to be anxious to get a seat in the
United States Senate, thought there was great need that the
delegation should be present at the opening of the session,
in order to help elect the speaker,-  believing that "there
never will be so good a time to get the test oath repealed as
then, when everybody is anxious for office, and of course for
votes."
The State has been redistricted for seven members of
Congress, and the districts are as follows by counties: -
First District,- Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, MIclntosh, Wayne,
Glynn, Camden, Charlton, Ware, Pierce, Appling, Tatnall, Bullock, Effingham, Scriven, Emanuel, Montgomery, Telfair, Coffee,
Clinch, Echols, Lowndes, Berrien, Irwin, Laurens, Johnson,
Brooks, Colquitt, and Thomas.
Second District, -Decatur, Early, Miller, Baker, Mitchell,
Q
257 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
WVorth, Dooly, Wilcox, Pulaski, Houston, Macon, Marion, Chattahoochee, Sumter, Webster, Stewart, Quitman, Clay, Calhoun,
Randolph, Terrell, and Dougherty.
Third District, -Muscogee, Schley, Taylor, Talbot,  Harris,
Troup, MTerriwether, Heard, Coweta, Fayette, Clayton, Carroll,
Campbell, Harralson, and Paulding.
Fourth District, - Upson, Pike, Spaulding, Henry, Newton,
Butts, Monroe, Crawford,  Bibb, Twigg,s, Wilkinson, Baldwin,
Jones, Jasper, and Putnam.
Fifth District, - Washington, Jefferson, Burke, Richmond,
Glasscock, Hancock, Warren, Columbia, Lincoln, Wilkes, Talliaferro, Greene, Morgan, Oglethorpe, and Elbert.
Sixth District, -Milton, Gwinnett, Walton, Clarke, Jackson,
Madison, Hart, Franklin, Bangs, Hall, Forsyth, Pickens, Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Habersham, Rabun, Towns, Union, Fannin, and Gilmer.
Seventh District,- DeKalb, Fulton, Cobb, Polk, Floyd, Bartow, Cherokee, Gordon, Chattooga, Walker, Whitfield, Murray,
Catoosa, and Dade.
The Freedmen's Bureau was brought before the Convention by a message from the Provisional Governor, covering a letter from  Brigadier-General Davis Tillson, State
Commissioner, setting forth the necessity of having an agent
of the bureau in each county, and stating that it was with
the utmost difficulty that he had been able to get suitable
officers for each section, even; and thereupon asking the
Governor to authorize such of the county officers as the bureau might select, and as might be willing to serve, to act as
its agents.   This proposition the Governor  indorsed as
likely, if accepted and executed in good faith, to tend much
toward removing martial law.  The message and documents
were sent to the committee of sixteen.
During the pendency of the matter before the committee,
General Tillson met the delegates at the hall one evening,
and explained to them the purposes and desires of the government and the bureau in respect to the freed people. He
was kindly received, and listened to with great attention.
258 
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.
On the following day the committee made a report, accepting "the wise and liberal proposition" of General Tillson, and authorizing any civil officer, or any citizen of the
State, to act, by his appointment and under his direction and
instructions, as agent of the bureau. "in adjusting difficulties
between the white and colored population of the State, in
maintaining the police of the country, and in other similar
matters."
This goes one step beyond the General's request, but not
beyond his desire, in that it authorizes him to constitute any
citizen as his agent.  Simple as is the whole proposition,offering to the people a prospect that their own neighbors,
instead of military officers, will, in many cases, be put in
charge of the freedmen's interests,- their intense hatred of
the bureau and the government led some men into opposition to this report.
MIatthews, the inevitable, of Oglethorpe, thought he discovered terrible things in it.  It was the entering wedge of
nigger equality,- it legalized nigger testimony, - it savored
of nigger suffrage, - it obliged a white man to stand beside
a nigger in the witness-box, - it obliged every court in the
State to admit nigger evidence, &c., &c &c., &c.,- to all and
several of which things he and his people were inflexibly
opposed.
Several delegates endeavored to make him see the matter
in its true light, but without avail; and the report was then
adopted, with about twenty dissenting voices.
It should be borne in mind that these agents, whether
county officers or mere civilians, will not be under the State
laws, but under the instructions of the bureau, and their
functions can at any time be suspended by the Assistant
Commissioner. General Tillson is confident that he will be
able to prove the practical wisdom of the proposed plan in
a very short time.
259 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WARl.
XXXI.
HOW REPUDIATION WAS ACCOMPLISHED.
MILLEDGEVILLE, November 7, 1865.
HE  leading question before the South Carolina Con      vention was that respecting the prohibition of slavery.
The leading question before the North Carolina Convention
was that respecting the legality of the ordinance of secession.
The leading question before the Georgia Convention was
that respecting the assumption of the war debt.
Knowing very well what had been required of the conventions of Alabama and North Carolina, and seeing what
would probably be required of the Legislatures of South Carolina and Mississippi, in respect to the debt, the delegates
here were, to use a homely but expressive word, very touchy
on the subject. They would talk calmly enoug,h with an
outsider on other questions; but as soon as conversation
turned to that many of them became excited, not to say violent, in their language.
WVhen the Convention came together I doubt if there were
over seventy delegates out of the two hundred and ninety
present who opposed the assumption of that debt. I think
there were also at least one hundred to one hundred and
twenty-five who favored its assumption at the face value of
the bonds and notes in which it exists. The balance of those
who favored its assumption would have been content to reduce it to a specie basis on the value of gold at the time the
various bonds, &c., were issued. In a word, there were at
least three, and quite likely four would be a more correct
figure,- at least three to one in favor of assuming that debt.
The Comptroller-General of the State, Honorable Petersonl Tlhweatt, in his report of the 16th of October, took
260 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
strong ground in favor of paying the debt, which he said
"rested on the highest moral and legal considerations."   A
couple of paragraphs from that report will show his feeling
and judgment on the question:  "What have the political questions of the war to do with this
matter?  Whether the war was right or wrong, was it not at the
call of the State and by the coercion of the Confederate government that tens of thousands of our men went to battle, perilling
health, limb, and life in a cause which they believed to be just,
and leaving behind them wives and children and mothers, dependent upon the maternal care of the State? Hlow could the
State refuse to make provision for those meii and their families?
And how can the State now drive away from the door of her
treasury the public creditors who enabled her to discharge so
sacred a duty? If the State did her duty to the suffering soldier
in the field and his famishing little ones at home, it was because
public-spirited men furnished the provisions, clothing, and money,
and took in exchange the treasury notes or bonds of the State.'
These treasury notes and bonds were issued with the unanimous
assent of the representatives of the whole State; there was no division, no opposition, no objection from any quarter whatever to their
issue, to meet the appropriations made, and thereby the promise
to pay them was the solemn pledge of the whole people of the
State; and can these creditors now, without infinite dishonor to
Georgia, be sent away loaded down with repudiated paper?
"Should Georgia's good name and credit and fame go down,
however, and she be held as a' REPUDIATOR,'- should the good
old State that gave me birth be charged with the violation of her
most solemn promises and pledges in matters of dollars and cents,
-should she be charged with having deliberately borrowed money
of her banks, of her citizens, of her widows and orphans, and of
others, by issuing bonds and treasury notes with solemn promises
to pay the same, and then, without any default on the part of
those who gave her their money and credit, deliberately refused to
repay the same, or any part thereof, and that she did this, too,
because there was no power to compel her to do justice, - shlould
the good old State that we have all ever been so proud of be
charged with thus treating her own citizens, (iiliudig helpless
261 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
women and children,) or any one else who trusted, alone, to her
EONOR, and in consequence of the same, she shall never have the
credit and high character she once possessed, - I desire to' put
it on record' that I had' no part or lot' in thus placing her, but,
that, as an officer of the State, and a true and loyal citizen, I
cooteoded, front the begicc ing to the end, for thle INTEGRITY and
HO-OR OF GEORGIA!"
The Provisional Governor, on the other hand, took strong
ground against paying the debt, as the following paragraph
from the message delivered to the Convention on its organization will show:
"It is of no legal or moral obligation, because it was created to
aid in the prosecution of a war of rebellion against the United
States. The purpose sought to be accomplished was unconstitutional, and all who participated in any wise in the effort to sever
the country were violators of law, and can therefore set up no
claim, either legal or equitable, for money advanced or for services rendered. Furthermore, these contracts, from which a liability is said to result, were made with Georgia in revolt, -with
Georgia as a member of the Confederate States government. The
government to which she then belonged has been overthrown, and
with its overthrow all Confederate debts became extinct. Georgia, as a component part of it, no longer exists, and her debts then
incurred have in like manner been extinguished. She is now no
longer in revolt. She is one of the States of the Federal Union;
and in her return to reconciliation her allegiance to the government requires that the act of secession be cancelled, and all other
acts done and performed in aid of the Rebellion be declared void
and of no effect. The ultimate redemption of the currency, both
State and Confederate, was made dependent in fact and in terms
upon the result of the fatal struggle.  No one expected payment
if finally defeated in our efforts to secure independence, and therefore no plighted faith is violated by a refusal on the part of Georgia to assume to pay an indebtedness dependent on the issue.
The currency and the cause flourished together while in life; and
now that the cause has no longer a being, the currency that sustained it may well be interred in the same grave.  Let the record of your action on this subject discourage, in the fixture, all
262 
THE WAPR-DEBT QUESTION. 
premature efforts to overthrow long and well-established governments. In a word, ordain solemnly and deliberately that no Legislature, now or hereafter, shall, directly or indirectly, in whole or
in part, assume to pay, in any manner, these demands, unconstitutional in their creation, and many of them without even the
countenance of equity to support them."
This report and this message were the standards round
which the fight on the debt question raged. The amount
of debt contracted during the war was a trifle over seventeen
million dollars, of which some four millions were for the
civil expenses of the State. Of the whole amount, about
eight and a half millions were payable "six months after a
treaty of peace shall have been ratified between the United
States and the Confederate States." I propose to show in
considerable detail the action and debate of the Convention
on the great questions involved in the overthrow of this war
debt.
On the third day of its session an ordinance was introduced
declaring void so much of the State debt as was made in aid
of the Rebellion against the United States.
Two motions were at once made, - to lay the ordinance
on the table for future action, and to send it to the Business
Committee of Sixteen.
MIr. J. R. Parrott, of Cass County, argued against laying
on the table. The people are anxious for an expression in
regard to the matter involved. It should go to the commit tee for a report, and then the whole question of the legality
of that debt should be met and settled here and forever.
Two or three delegates thought the matter was already
before the committee, by the reference thereto of the Gov ernor's message.
General A, J. Hansell, of Marietta, concurred  in this
opinion.  For himself, he would say that he was opposed to
repudiation.  He thought this war debt was justly due, and
should be paid on the basis of the gold value of the bonds
when they were issued.
263 
TIUE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Honorable James L. Seward, of Thomasville, former
member of Congress, held that the whole debt had no legal
existence; and he was amazed that anybody could pretend
that such part of it as was payable six months after a treaty
of peace is made was valid. He did n't care what was done
with the ordinance in question, but the subject involved in
it could not be slurred over in any possible way.
The ordinance then, and without further debate, went to
the committee by general consent.
On the fourth day Mr. J. L. Warren, of Pulaski County,
moved a resolution for a committee of five to wait on the
Provisional Governor and learn whether he has any information from the President to the effect that the repudiation
of the State debt, created during the late civil war, is essential to a resumption of amicable relations with the United
States.
This mere resolution of inquiry fell into the Convention
like a bombshell, and a dozen delegates rushed into hasty
speeches on the question. It was not a grapple with the
main point,- the payment of the debt,- but a lively skirmish around it, which lasted about two hours and a half, and
was exceedingly entertaining.
fIr. Warren was opposed to repudiation, and did n't want
any Presidential telegrams sprung on the Convention at the
last moment. If the Governor had information of the kind
indicated in his resolution, he wanted it before the body at
once.  If the authorities at Washington require this thing
of us, we must submit as we did to the emancipation of our
slaves; but let us know beforehand what we are compelled
to do, so that if we must repudiate the responsibility may
rest upon the government of the United States, and not on
the escutcheon of Georgia.
BMr. C. T. Goode, of Houston County, an ex-Rebel colonel,
said he had no doubt as to the entire legality of the debt, and
to any voluntary repudiation of it he was utterly opposed;
264 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
but Georgia is desolated, and all the elements of her enter prise are paralyzed.  A military despotism is marching with
iron tread over our Constitution and laws, and grinding out
the rights of our citizens.  This thing must cease or we shall
die,-  we must get rid of this despotism or Georgia cannot
survive. We are at the mercy of the conqueror, and must
submit to his dictates, however hard or unjust we may deem
them.
Judge Simmons, of Gwinette County, the leading Union ist in the Convention of 1861, earnestly opposed the passage
of the resolution. He would not even seem to admit that
the debt could be repudiated.  We have submitted to a dis grace deep enough and dark enough already. Our meeting
here as we do under the proclamation of a military governor
is humiliation enough to satisfy any reasonable man. Let
us act in a dignified manner, - act for ourselves and not
admit that we are utterly without rights. Secession was not
my fault; every delegate here will bear me witness that I
never favored it in any shape. But when the State went out
of the Union we all went with her, - her people stood as
one man for her defence; and now it would not be fair, would
not be decent and honest, for us to turn around and repudiate the debt we all helped her to create. I never saw the
day when I believed the South would be gainer in asserting
her independence, and I believe we are better off now than
we would have been had we gained it; but I would as soon
steal as repudiate this debt.  We have lost about everything
but honor, -let us save that. Let us do our work here as
becomes men who have consciences. The President stands
as a wall between us and the radicalism of the North; and
I am sure he would not ask us to repudiate this debt if he
knew how anxious we all are to pay it, and keep the fair
name of the State untarnished. If the Congress requires of
us to repudiate precedent to the admission of our representatives, then we must do it.  But,et us wait and see if that
265
12 
THE SOUTH SINCE TIHE WAR.
further disgrace is required of us. If we must drink still
deeper of the cup of infamy, let those who require it of us
take the responsibility of putting it to our lips. Let us repudiate only at the express command of military power; and
then, when we are ayaini in the enjoyment of our rights in the
Federal U[5ion, and are once more a free and independent sovereignty, let us call another Convention and assume the whole
debt.
Honorable A. H. Kenan, of this city, who was in the
Rebel Congress, was opposed to the resolution. If Georgia
paid her proportion of the taxes laid by the general government, he thought no one had a right to say what she should
do with her own debt. At all events, the Legislature, and not
the Convention, was the proper body to take action in regard
to the subject if any action was needed.
MIr. A. H. Chappel, of Columbus, one of the few real
Union men of the Convention, took exception to the idea
that there was any disgrace in the defeat of the South. WVe
made the war like men, we fought it like men, and when we
were conquered we surrendered like men. In all this there
is not to me, and should not be to any true Georgian, any
disgrace, any humiliation. I regard the President's telegram to Governor Holden simply as a hint, not as a dictation, but as a friendly warning. And I remark that he is but
carrying out the policy heretofore enunciated both by the
Federal CongI,ress and President Lincoln, that no part of the
debt incurred in carrying on the war must be paid. After
having swallowed the camel, let us not strain at the gnat.
After having unanimously ratified the decree of emancipation, which buried all our fortunes, will it debase us to accept this smaller condition that the conqueror requires?
Ex-colonel J. D. Matthews, of Oglethorpe County, followed the hostile speech he made on the Jeff Davis pardon
question with another quite as objectionable on this. He
said he should vote against the resolution. Hie denied the
266 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
right either of tihe President or of Congress to interfere in
this matter. The President certainly cannot decide upon it.
We shall not be back in the Union till our representatives
are admitted to their seats, and if Congress requires us to
repudiate, it will be time then to act. Don't let us do more
than is required of us.  True, we have no rights but such as
the conqueror chooses to give us; but I will not yield one
inch more than military force requires me to yield. The
Convention is the representative of what is left of the sov ereignty of Georgia; let us do what in us lies to assert that
sovereignty.  I shall never give my vote to add the dam ning, disgrace of repudiation to the humiliation of subjuga tion.  Let our members go to Congress and be refused be fore we even take it into consideration. I will never consent
to do so sooner.  I will then entertain the proposition, and
not before. I think it is unbecoming in us to seek this information of the President. His private views upon it we
already know. His public policy he has boldly proclaimed;
and that is to let us manage our internal affairs in our own
way. It is only those who are bankrupt in argument upon
this matter, that seek to frighten us by citations of the President. I am free to admit that, in my judgment, Georgians
have not been disgraced by the results of the war.  The
Southern men have made a history of gallant deed and doing
which commands the respect of mankind and of which our
most distant posterity will not be ashamed. But there is a
disgrace which can forever mar the beauty of character,
however high and noble it may previously have been. There
is a disgrace, which, like murder and the loss of virgin purity,
can never be effaced, can never be washed out.  That disgrace is the infamy of dishonesty.  Repudiation of honest
debts contracted by the constitutional authorities of the State,
bound upon our plighted faith for a valuable consideration,
is dishonest. I have no soft term to apply to the term of
repudiation.  The war debt of Georgia was so contracted,
267 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
and I hold that the people of the State are bound by every
principle of honor and justice, manhood and magnanimity to
pay the debt.! fully realize our condition as a people. I
would not emiobarras:, unnecessarily, the State ill her effort
to return to the Union; but where the honor of the State is
involved, where the solemn faith of her people is pledged,
where the principles of justice and equity are asserting their
claims and demanding to be heard, I will never submit to
the policy of disregarding our solemn duty, except under the
compulsion of irresistible power. You may repudiate now,
you may pass a solemn ordinance here that declares the war
debt of Georgia to be unconstitutional and void, that it was
contracted, if you please, for the purpose of carrying on a
wicked and rebellious enterprise, and that at no time shall
it ever be paid; and yet your children who may come after
you, when you have passed from the stage of action, would
have a perfect right to resume and pay the debt. For one,
I declare, should you pass an ordinance of repudiation, and
should Providence grant to me the term of a thousand years
on earth, I would, as one of the last acts of my life, use all
the influence and power I possessed to arouse my countrymen to a sense of justice and honor, and ask them to denounce your action, and to meet the claims of justice and
right, by paying the debt.
General Hanisell said repudiation would shock the moral
sense of every right-thinking man and be an act of ineffable
disgrace. He would vote against the resolution. True, we
have swallowed the camel, but I am in no mood for a dessert, even if it be a gnat. I look upon this inquiry as a quasi
request to impose further terms of humiliation. I mean to
meet those already imposed in good faith and as becomes a
man, but I beg gentlemen to ask for no more at present.
Mr. Joshua Hill said he thought there was a great deal of
needless feeling existing.  The resolution is a simple one of
inquiry, which it is every way proper to pass.  I must add,
268 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
however, that whatever may or may not be the dishonor of
repudiating this debt, it would be an everlasting stigma for
any future convention to assume it if we set it aside.
MIr. Solomon Cohen, ex-postmaster of Savannah, and
probable candidate for Congress from that district, found the
whole question of State rights involved in this issue. He
honored the President for his course in endeavoring to stay
the waves of Northern fanaticism, and would uphold him all
he could; but there is a limit beyond which I cannot go, and
I never, no, never, can vote for repudiation, even at the conqueror's command. We know very well what the fanatical
portion of the North require of us. They would not be satisfied with repudiation, unless joined with negro evidence,
negro suffrage, negro equality, social and political. Do what
we may, we cannot get over that test-oath which they have
on their statute-book, and which no honorable man in Georgia can take. Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens have
already indicated what they require of us. We must meet
them somewhere, and I propose to meet them right here.
If this test is now made a prerequisite to our restoration, I
for one will resign, and let my constituents, if they choose,
send another man to fill the seat I now hold.
The debate here ended, and the obnoxious resolution went
to the table by a vote of 162 to 113.
On the fifth day Joshua Hill moved a resolution, asking
the Governor to communicate from time to time such facts
in his possession as might be of public interest.
Nothing could be more proper than this, certainly; but
one delegate made a furious assault upon it, on the ground
that it was intended, under it, to bring in Presidential instructions on the repudiation question. No one denied this,
but there was so little in the resolution itself, that the
Convention could not refuse to pass it. In half an hour
there came up fiom the Governor a brief message, enclosing
and indorsing the following telegrams:
269 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"WASHINGTON, October 28, 1865.
"To GOVERNOR JAMES JOHNSON: -
"Your several telegrams have been received.  The President
of the United States cannot recognize the people of any State as
having resumed the relations of loyalty to the Union that admits
as legal obligations contracted or debts created in their name to
promote the war of the Rebellion.
"W M. I. SEWARD."
" WASIINGTON, October 29, 1865.
"To JAMES JOHNSON, Provisional Governor of Georgia:  -
"Your despatch has been received.  The people of Georgia
should not hesitate one single moment in repudiating every single
dollar of debt created for the purpose of aiding the Rebellion
against the government of the United States. It will not do to
levy and collect taxes from a State and people that are loyal and
in the Union to pay a debt that was created to aid in taking them
out, thereby subverting the Constitution of the United States. I
do not believe that the great mass of the people of the State of
Georgia, when left uninfluenced, will ever submit to the payment
of a debt which was the main cause of bringing on their past and
present suffering, -the result of the Rebellion. Those who invested their capital in the creation of this debt must meet their
fate and take it as one of the inevitable results of the Rebellion,
though it may seem hard to them. It should at once be made
known, at home and abroad, that no debt contracted for the purpose of dissolving the Union of the States can or will be paid by
taxes levied on the people for such purposes.
" ANDREW  JOHNSON."
To say that this produced consternation is to put the fact
very mildly indeed.  The fluttering in the gallery was quite
as bad as on the floor of the Convention.  "D-n the thing!"
said a delegate who sat near me.  There was nothing for it,
however, but to send the message and accompanying documents to the committee of sixteen, and that was done.
An ordinance was immediately introduced by 1NIr. Chappell, of MIuscogee. The first section declared the whole war
debt null and void; the second provided for the payment by
270 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
subsequent Legislatures of "any particular debts incurred
for other purposes than that of carrying on, aiding, or abet ting the war, directly or indirectly"; the third provided that
"all evidences of debt whatever issued by the State, payable
only in Confederate currency," should be forever prohibited
from being paid; the fourth made the ordinance a part of the
Constitution.  This followed the Governor's message and
went to the Business Committee.
On the sixth day the question came up again on the intro duction of a resolution appointing a commission of three to
inquire and report to the General Assembly what proportion
of the debt of the State was created for strictly war purposes.
The temper of the Convention in favor of paying all the
debt was sharply indicated by the general unanimity with
which it refused to consider this proposition.
The Convention thought to make a strong point against
somebody by calling on the Provisional Governor for copies
of his telegrams to W,ashington.  He sent them in before
the resolution of inquiry could be engrossed. A hundred
delegates affected to laugh contemptuously when they found
hlie had said, "We need help to reject the war debt; what
ought the Convention to do?" There did not, however,
seem to be anything funny in the matter, except the nervous
eagerness of the Convention to save the war debt.
Later in the day, Mr. W. F. Wright, of Coweta County, introduced an ordinance to divide the debt, with a view to reject
all that part incurred directly in prosecuting the war, and to
pay all of it that went to soldiers' families, civil officers, and
for general civil expenses. It followed the other documents
and was sent to Judge Jenkins's committee.
On the seventh day, Mr. Matthews, of Oglethorpe County,
moved a resolution directing the committee of sixteen to
inquire as to the propriety of selling the Atlantic and Great
WVestern Railway, with the view of enabling the State to pay
her debts. The house refused by a decisive vote to suspend
the rules and consider this resolution.
271 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
This railway is the line from Atlanta to Chattanooga, is
the exclusive property of the State, and yielded in the three
or four years last preceding the war a yearly income of
nearly a million of dollars.
Immediately on the refusal of the house to consider the
Mlatthews resolution, MIr. Cohen, of Savannah, introduced an
ordinance, understood to have been drawn by ex-Governor
Brown, for the sale of the Great Western and Atlantic Rail —
road, and for the incorporation of the purchasers thereof. It
valued the road at ten million two hundred thousand dollars, proposed to fix the shares at one hundred dollars each,
and to receive in payment for such shares national currency
at par, Georgia bonds issued before the war at ninety-five
cents on the dollar, and the various issues constituting the
so-called war debt at rates ranging from twenty to seventyfive cents on the dollar. The peculiar feature of the bill
was, of course, the indirect proposition to pay the war debt.
3Ir. Joshua Hill said the bill was very ingeniously drawn;
but he thought its purpose was easily enough apparent, and
he proposed to meet the issue it raised at once. Ile was
alike opposed to the sale of the road and to the payment
of the so-called war debt. He believed, moreover, that the
Convention had nothing to do with the subjects thus presented, and he was sorry any one had seen fit to bring forward such a disturbing measure. He could truthfully say
he had no part in bringing on the war, and he wanted no
reference here to the questions involved in it. The President had said to him long ago that the State must ignore the
war debt, and nothing could be made by attempting to avoid
that conclusion. Gentlemen would do well to bear in mind
that the Convention existed simply by the will of the President, and that the power which created it could very easily
dissolve it.
Mr. J. R. Parrott, of Bartow County, a lawyer, a gentleman of thirty-five years or thereabouts, with the blackest of
272 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
eyes and hair and beard, a man who has served in the
Legislature, and was conscripted in the army, next got the
floor. He alone, of all the speakers, put the question on its
true basis. He was utterly and unalterably opposed to the
assumption of this illegal and unconstitutional debt, and he
would resist here and everywhere all efforts to tax the poor
people of the State for the benefit of the Shylocks who hold
it. He said no one proposed to pay Georgia's share of the
Confederate States debt. No one proposed to pay for the
lost slaves, for the burned houses, for the ruined fortunes of
the thousands,- no one proposed anything but the payment
of these bonds in the hands of men, fat and sleek, who never
saw the forefront of battle, and were careful to keep out of
harm's way in the hour of conflict.  There was one debt the
State should pay, - that to the orphans whose property it
had, by legislative enactment, forced into State securities;
but beyond that it never should, with his consent, pay a dollar of the debt created in the effort to debase the old flag.
There are hundreds of men who were in the bullet department of the war, whilst others were in the speculating or
stay-at-home department.   The former had no chances at
State six-per-cents, the latter class got them all. In many
cases those in the bullet department had their houses burnt,
their fencing all destroyed, their horses, cows, mules, hogs,
and other property taken from them. In the name of all
that is fair and honest, I ask, gentlemen, if it is right to tax
this bullet department,- man's naked land and the industry
of himself and his homeless family, for all time to come,-to
put money into the pocket of him of the speculating departmrent or to swell the wealth of the favorites of power? Let
gentlemen vote for such injustice if they wish, and go home
and meet the condemnation of an outraged people. Over
three hundred millions invested in negroes, over one hundred and fifty millions of other property, and all our Confederate money, went down with the war; and now I say, let
12*                               R
273 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
our State debt created by the war, and for the war, and
which was dependent on the war, go with all the balance.
Let us have no favorites, no preferred debt, but let every
man, so far as the war debt is concerned, whether State
or Confederate, stand upon an equal footing. If you will
propose any plan by which our people can become educated,
the resources of our State developed, our fields cultivated,
our barns filled with plenty, and happiness and prosperity
bless the whole people, I will go for it heart and hand; but
my conceptions of honesty and justice will not warrant me
in throwing the burden of the war on the widowhood and
orphanage of my State, in taxing the toiling thousands of my
suffering countrymen to pay off a debt which I consider unconstitutional and void, and that should pass away with the
unfortunate war just ended.
After a brief personal explanation by the mover of the
ordinance, in which he avowed his purpose to secure the
payment of the entire debt, the bill was tabled by a strong
majority.
Here the war-debt question rested for four days. The telegrams from Washington were as leaven in the lump. The
subject became one of still more grave importance. Committees sat upon it, caucuses deliberated upon it. It was the
common theme of conversation everywhere.  The morning
was troubled with it; it disturbed the digestion of noon;
and the pillow of night was disquieted by it.  Slowly, but
nevertheless very surely, men came to see the matter in a
new light. They were not convinced of the illegality of the
debt, and they insisted that their acquiescence in the results
of the war ought not to be judged by their position in regard
to this matter; but they began to admit that it would not do
to disregard the admonitions of the President, -began to
see that they could, under certain circumstances, vote for
repudiation.
On the eleventh day the contest was renewed with great
274 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
vigor, and the battle raged for four hours in such confusion
that one can hardly report everything that was done.
Judge Jenkins reported from the committee of sixteen that
they had been unable to agree upon any report touching the
war debt, and he asked that they be discharged from its further consideration. The discharge was granted.
Mr. Chappell at once called up his ordinance introduced on
the fifth day, declaring the war debt null and void. Among
the substitutes and amendments proposed were the following:  By Mr. Uriah Dart, of Glynn County: To issue seven
lier cent bonds at ten, twenty, and thirty years, in payment
of the whole debt according to the gold standard. Lost by
a viva voce vote.
By Mr. J. R. Alexander, of Thomas County: "Whereas
official information has been received that Georgia cannot be
restored to her relations in the Union till she repudiates her
war debt, therefore the said debt is hereby declared null
and void." Lost by 111 to 135.
By Mr. G. PR. Black, of Scriven County: Declaring the
desire of the State to pay the debt, directing the General
Assembly to provide for its payment in full, and providing
that if Congress shall require repudiation precedent to readmission, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to repudiate as of necessity. Lost by 86 to 182.
By Mr. N.J. Hammond, of Atlanta:  That even if the
people were compelled to ackowledge the illegality of the
debt, it was an obligation of honor that ought to be discharged. Lost by a viva voce vote.
By Judge Simmons: "That it shall be the duty of the
Legislature, at the next session thereof, to ascertain the
specie value received by the State for each class of bonds,
notes, &c., when negotiated or issued from the treasury during the late civil war, and to provide by law for the payment thereof, with such interest as may be found just and
275 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
right on each class, at such specie value; which payment
may be provided for by a sale of such portion of the State
property as may be necessary for that purpose, by issuing
new treasury notes, such as could be circulated as money
among the people, for the redemption of those now outstand ing, or State bornds, payable at such future time as that the
profits of the State road and other public property would be
sufficient to pay the same at maturity, or both, or by levying
a tax payable in kind, upon such outstanding treasury notes,
for their redemption in whole, or in part, or by such other
means as that body may see fit to adopt, provided that no
tax, except such tax in kind, payable in such outstanding
treasury notes, shall be levied upon the people to pay said
debt, or any part thereof; and provided further, that if the
government of the United States shall require of the State
of Georgia, as a condition precedent to her restoration to all
her civil and political rights, as a constituent member of the
Federal government, that she shall repudiate a part or the
whole of her war debt, then, and -in that event, said war debt,
or such part thereof, and all bonds, notes, certificates, and
other securities issued now and outstanding for the payment
of the same, is and are hereby declared to be null and void
to all intents and purposes whatever." This strange proposition for cheating the people, the President, and the nation,
came from one who claims great consideration as a bold
Unionist in 1860-61; but it was lost by a viva voce vote.
By  1Ir. Cohen:  "That the consideration of the whole
subject be postponed for the present, and be specially referred to the Legislature to be elected in October, 1867."
Lost by a viva voce vote.
This finished the amendments and substitutes, and paved
the way for debate, which came up on a motion to strike
from 3ir. Chappell's ordinance the fourth clause, making the
whole a part of the Constitution.
1Ir. Chappell wanted the ordinance made a part of the
276 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
Constitution. If this were not done, the members of the
Legislature, sworn to support the Constitution but not the
ordinance, would look upon the two in a very different light,
and might easily be persuaded that they were under no legal
or moral obligations to observe the latter. The only security
we can have for their keeping inviolate a decree of this Convention is their oaths to that effect, and this we could not
get unless the decree is incorporated into the Constitution.
Put it in there and it will stand forever as an enduring remainder to posterity of the consequences of Rebellion.
Mir. Matthews made another bitter but eloquent speech
against the whole ordinance, and against the proposition to
incorporate it into the Constitution. He regarded the debt
as a debt of honor, as a solemn pledge, which Georgia made
to the people of the State; and if there is no honor in that
transaction, there is no honor under Heaven. It cannot be
repudiated without the violation of the most sacred pledges
of Georgia. I do not wish to be represented here as charging the President of the United States with being a tyrant,
but it is little less than tyranny to make this demand upon
us. I will not crawl in the dust to lick the hand of power.
WVe are not yet slaves; we are the same men we were four
years ago; and I bid my associates stand as we stood when
we flung the flag of Rebellion to the breeze, as we stood
through the long and bloody years in which we upheld that
flag!  (Hearty applause.)   I see no necessity for putting
this thing into the Constitution, for an ordinance of this body
is just as much a part of the fundamental law as that document itself. I ask gentlemen to be satisfied with a simple
repudiation. Let the damning instrument which records our
everlasting shame and disgrace be kept as inconspicuous as
possible, let it go into darkness among the musty archives
of the State, so that our children need not be called upon to
blush at its sight, so that future generations must seek
long to find it, and, haply, not discovering it, may cherish
277 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the hope that we were found to be not slaves, but men of
honor, ever in our hour of sorest distress!
Mr. Hammond thought the fears of the friends of the
original ordinance were groundless. A debt once repudiated
would never be assumed. Besides, he did not like this distrust of the Legislature.   Georgians were not scoundrels,
and their word was good as any man's oath. If the Legislature was disposed to disregard the action of the Convention
they could do it, Constitution or no Constitution. Let the
Convention do its work with proper respect for those who
sent them here.
MNr. Hill rebuked the gentlemen who kept up the fight in
favor of the war debt. He thought the course of the Secessionists who fled the country much more honorable than that
of those who remained, got pardoned, and were continually
renewing agitation.  As for himself, he was not acting at the
dictation of the President or any one else, but from his own
sense of right and duty. He opposed the motion to strike out
the last clause of the ordinance. He wanted it to stand in
the Constitution as a landmark for all coming generations of
Georgia's children, to warn them against the mischiefs, evils,
and curses of secession. He would have all classes keep it
continually before them, so that they may see if in the future
any man is inclined to break faith upon the subject.
Mr. Seward had no doubt of the illegality of the war debt.
If secession was null and void, all contracts under it were
null and void also; and that it was null and void is the very
thing decided by the war.  If there is no right of secession,
then secession is treason, and all obligations issued to sustain
it, being likewise treasonable, are wrong in morals as well as
in law. He could see no valid reason for declining to make
the ordinance a part of the Constitution.
The previous question was then called by Mr. Seward,
and the words, "This ordinance shall be a part of the Constitution and fundamental law of the State," were stricken
out by a vote of 156 to 107.
278 
THE WAR-DEBT QUESTION.
On the twelfth day, that is, this morning, Mr. Chappell
moved to reconsider the vote by which this clause was stricken out; but the motion was lost by 89 to 117.
And then, without further words, the great contest came
to a close, and the ordinance as amended passed by a vote
of 135 to 117.  It is in the following words:
"Be it ordained by the people of Georcjia, in Convention assembled, That all the debts contracted or incurred by the State
of Georgia, either as a separate State or as a member of the
late partnership or confederacy of States styled the Confederate
States of America, for the purpose of carrying on the late war of
secession against the United States of America, or for the purpose
of aiding, abetting, or promoting said war in any way, directly or
indirectly, be, and the same are, hereby declared null and void;
and the Legislature is hereby prohibited forever from, in any way,
acknowledging or paying the same debts, or any part thereof, or
from passing any law for that purpose, or to secure or provide for
the said debts, or any part thereof, by any appropriation of money,
property, stocks, funds, or assests of any kind to that object.
"Be it further ordained, That inasmuch as the annual income
of the State, before and during said war, from taxation and other
sources of revenue, was amply sufficient for the support of the
ordinary civil government of the State, and for the payment of
all its expenses incident to a state of peace, and as the extraordinary expenses which led to the creation of a debt were the offspring and results of the war, it is therefore the judgment, ordinance, and decree of this Convention, that all debts of the State
incurred during said war shall be considered, held, and treated
as debts incurred for carrying on the war; Provided, that nothing
herein contained shall prevent any Legislature hereafter to assemble from making appropriations of money for the payment of any
claim against the State originating after the 19th January, 1861,
where it shall be made clearly to appear that such claim was
founded upon a consideration disconnected with any purpose of
aiding or assisting the prosecution of the late war against the
United States, and not incidental to a state of war.
"Be it fiurther ordained, That all bills, bonds, notes, or evidences
of debt whatever, issued by the State, payable only in Confederate
279 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
currency, or on a contingency or contingencies which have never
happened, and can now never happen, have ceased to be debts at
all, either in whole or part, and are hereby wholly prohibited frolm
being paid, even though originally issued for other purposes than
that of carrying on the said war, or aiding or establishing it, directly or indirectly."
This ordinance came originally from Honorable A. IH.
Chappell, of Columbus; but it was shorn of its strength by
an amendment moved by MIr. Hill, viz., the proviso of
the second section, in place of which MIr. Chappell had the
words, "Except in cases where it shall be satisfactorily
shown by impartial and disinterested proof that any particular debt or debts were incurred for other purposes than that
of carrying on, aiding, or abetting the war, directly or indirectly."   It will be noticed that the vague words of the
proviso, "shall be made clearly to appear," can, in the hands
of a Legislature of the proper stamp, be made to cover a
very wide range of claims; and leading delegates tell me
that they will be made to cover at least half the seventeen
millions of the so-called war debt. This proviso was adopted
by a large majority, without count.
It is noticeable that the men who voted against assuming
the debt live in the mountainous and wire-grass regions of
the State, where, indeed, the loyal men of 1860-61 were
found. Yet it must not be forgotten that the ordinance finally passed could have received scarcely seventy-five votes on
the opening day of the Convention. Among those who voted
against it are Judge Jenkins, probable Governor, Messrs.
MaItthews, Cohen, Cabannis, and Cook, each of whom is
likely to be elected to Congress, and Messrs. Arnold, Kenan,
Reynolds, Simmons, and Stapleton of the Union men in the
Secession Convention.
. 280 
THE LOYALTY OF THE CONVENTION.
XXXII.
REVIEW OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE
CONVENTION.
MAcon, November 8,1865.
1HE State Convention adjourned at noon to-day, subject
to the call of its President, having held a session of
thirteen days.
The delegates were enabled before leaving town to settle
the gubernatorial question quite to their own satisfaction, and
I presume to the general satisfaction of the people. Alexander H. Stephens appreciates his position, and declines to
run for any office, thus leaving the field clear for Judge
Charles J. Jenkins, of Augusta, whose election will take
place on the 15th instant.
It would be a mockery to say that this was a Convention
of loyal men. The flag was neither raised on the StateHouse where the Convention met nor on the hotel where
nine tenths of the delegates boarded; and I know, of my
own knowledge, that when an outsider remarked one morning to a knot of four delegates that it would look well to
hoist the flag on the Capitol, he was answered, "No, I'11l be
d-d if anybody gets that up there."
It was found easy enough to invite ex-Rebel generals and
ex-Rebel colonels and ex-Rebel politicians to seats on the
floor of the Convention, but no motion was made to invite to
such seats either lIajor-General Steadman, commanding the
department, or Brevet lIajor-General Wilson, commanding
the district, or Brigadier-General Tillson, State Commissioner
of the Freedmen's Bureau, all of whom were obliged to find
seats as best they could in the dirty and miserable little gallery.  Furthermore, the report getting out that one delegate
281 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAPR.
of some Union propensities meant to move a resolution
giving these officers such courtesies, he was waited upon by
another delegate who said to him, "I give you fair warning, you can do as you please, but if you do move such a
resolution you'11ll see a d-d pretty little row right away."
The course of Mr. Joshua Hill in declining to move a reconsideration of the secession ordinance, because such motion
would disturb the harmony of the body, typified the spirit of
the best men. They were willing to do just as little as would
be needful to meet what they supposed are the requirements
of the government. The other side only differed from these
in the fact that they were anxious to do just as little as would
be needful to restore the State to her relations with the
Union.
The excessively modest opinion of the Convention in respect to its labors is apparent from the following address,
adopted just before the adjournment:
"To  HIS  EXCELLENCY  A-NDRFW  JOHNSON, President of tTe
United States of America: -
"The people of the State of Georgia, now in Convention, having repealed all ordinances and resolutions by them heretofore
adopted with a purpose to separate themselves from the United
States, and to enter into another confederacy; and having adopted
a Constitution strictly republican, wherein the supremacy of the
Constitution, the constitutional laws, and treaties of the United
States of America are distinctly affirmed; having therein recognized the emancipation by the United States government of persons previously held as slaves in this State, and ordained, in the
fundamental law, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude
(save as a punishment for crime) shall hereafter exist in Georgia;
and having, as they conceive, done all things necessary and proper,
on their part, to the fuill and complete restoration of their State to
her rights and privileges as a State, and as a member of the American Union, respectfully request that all needful executive and
legislative measures be taken to effect such restoration as speedily
as possible.
282 
THE LOYALTY OF THE  CONVENTION.
"We, the delegates of the people, fully informed as to their
purposes and desires, assure your Excellency that it is their fixed
intention to perform their whole duty as citizens of the United
States; that their desire is to live under the Constitution in peace
and harmony with the whole people, and to see sectional strife
banished forever from the national councils.
"We moreover express to you, Sir, their entire confidence in
your just and kind intentions towards them, and their anticipations of your conciliatory and trustful consideration of their acts
and doings in this Convention."
Newspapers came but infrequently to Georgia's out-of-the way capital, and I have seen little indicative of the opinion
held by the sound heart of the North of the Convention's
work. For myself, with every disposition to charity of judg ment, I must pronounce it very far from being good. Of the
semi-rebelliouls, semi-defiant spirit manifested by individual
delegates in private conversation I do not now speak, - the
present concern being wholly with their acts and speeches as
public men.  Dealing, therewith, I can only echo the words
of Joshua Hill, the old Union leader,- words uttered after
he had sacrificed his great opportunity and surrendered the
lofty principle of nationality for the sake of harmonious action
ill respect to the secession ordinance. Having given up the
vital point at issue in the whole war without the least struggle to save it, he was yet forced to declare: "Seeing what I
see, and hlearing what I hear, I am bound to conclude that
the spirit of enmity to the United States government is not
yet extinct."
The State-ri,ghlts heresy was as dominant in this Convention, almost, as in that of 1861. True, there is a clause in
the new Constitution that acknowledges the Constitution of
the United States and all laws created in pursuance thereof
as the supreme law of the State; but the natural belief and
feeling of members crops out, nevertheless, in the beforegiven memorial to the President.  "With a purpose to sep
283 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WVAR.
arate themselves from the United States and to enter into
another Confederacy," is the noteworthy language of this document, by which it is virtually declared that the United States
is not a nationality, not a government one and indivisible,
but only a "confederacy" that may be broken  up at any
moment. Yet, in the face of this language, and in face of
the fact that the secession ordinance is only repealed, and of
the other grave fact, that no part of the Convention's work is
submitted to the people for ratification, this address to the
President brazenly claims that everything necessary and
proper has been done to entitle the State to a fiull and complete restoration of her rights in the Union.
It seems to me, in view of the language of all classes of
delegates, a very grave matter that the constitution and the
ordinance repealing the act of secession are not submitted
to the people. One of the best of the so-called Union
men openly suggested, if he did not strongly advocate, the
repudiation of the war debt by this Convention and its assumption by another convention, called as soon as the State
resumes  her privileges in Congress.   Delegate Simmons
representing the element which never acquiesced in the war,
said: "Our meeting here by military proclamation as we do
is a disgrace and humiliation." Delegate Goode, representing the element which opposed secession, but heartily engaged
in the war on behalf of the State, said: "The office of Provisional Governor is a military office, and all his acts and
appointments are of a military character; and with them we
as a people have nothing to do except as we are compelled by
military force." Delegate Kenan, representing the element
which favored co-operation in the winter of 1860-61, yet
was at heart urgent for secession, said: "We are living under a tyrannical military despotism; our hands are tied; we
have no free will of our own; we must do whatever the conqueror bids us do." Delegate Matthews, representing the
element which was hot for secession and is now very malig
28,4 
THE LOYALTY OF THE CONVENTION.
nant, said: "It is an insult to the proud State of Georgia to
call this a free Convention of her people, if we are to be
governed in our course by the views of the President." The
argument from all these utterances is plain enough, -if this
was simply a military Convention, how long before we shall
have a party here advocating a repudiation of its action in
one or more particulars?
The action of the Convention on the slavery question was
consonant with that on the secession question. It accepted
the fact as accomplished by the arms of the nation, but put
in a claim for compensation.  WVe may be thankful for its
broad affirmation that the Presidential proclamation was not
the useless paper that some men would have us believe; but
it is scarcely less than an insult to even indirectly assert an
obligation on the part of the government to pay for the slaves
it declared free.
The Convention directs the Legislature to provide for the
government and protection of freedmen, but adds that "the
General Assembly shall prescribe in what cases his testimony shall be admitted into the courts," and thereby impliedly says he shall yet be a slave in fact if not in name.
It is this indifference to manhood, -low, dwarfed, ignorant,
pitifully poor manhood, if you will, but still manhood,- it is
this inditfference to the man in the negro that shocks my
moral sense everywhere in the South, and nowhere more
than here. There is a lower deep than the Levite reached
in going by on the other side, for he only shunned the
wounded man; and these Georgians reach it by ignoring the
very existence of the wounded man.
I am told by a dozen delegates- am even told by no less
than three Superior Court judges of the State - that there is
nothing in the code of Georgia to prevent the admission of
negro evidence in the courts.  Indeed, one of these judges,
who has much influence in the State, tells me that when
slavery fell eveiything resting on it fell; and that the negro,
285 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
by virtue of his status as a free person, has just the same
legal rights that the white man has. The revolting and humiliating feature of the situation is, therefore, the cool indifference with which everybody ignores those rights.
In the matter of asking freedom for certain persons, the
animus of the Convention was also apparent. There was
slight opposition to memorializing in favor of Jeff Davis, but
its character showed less love for the government than chagrin at the overthrow of the Rebellion. So, too, when the
resolution asking pardon for ex-Commodore Tatnall came up,
a unanimous vote for it was urged because he deserted a very
high place in the navy of the United States in order to war
upon the flag under which he had sailed for more than forty
years; and after this vote had been urged solely on this
strange ground, only four or five delegates had manhood
enough to vote against the resolution!
The war debt of the State was repudiated, yet here the usual
doublefacedness of the Convention again appeared. In spite
of the strong words of the first section of the ordinance, the
final clause, which made it a part of the Constitution, was
stricken out by a vote of 156 to 107, so as to leave the
whole subject open for action at a future session of the Convention. Furthermore, there was inserted, by an almost
unanimous vote, a proviso giving the Legislature power to
pay any claim "where it shall be made clearly to appear that
such claim is founded upon a consideration disconnected with
any purpose of aiding or assisting the prosecution of the late
war against the United States."  Will a claim for four years'
service as Governor be allowed under that proviso? Will
the two millions necessary to pay the Legislature for four
years' service be disallowed? If the war-debt bondholders
can make it appear that their bonds were issued to pay for
corn and bacon to be given to starving women and children
whose husbands and fathers were fighting the government,
will not a pliant Legislature appropriate the necessary money?
286 
THE LOYALTY OF THE CONVENTION.
There were many earnest men in the Convention who
sincerely mean, as the address to the President says, "to
perform their whole duty as citizens of the United States";
but with three or four exceptions, they were lacking either
in force or disposition to attempt to control the Convention
toward good ends. Possibly the aggregate of the individual
opinions and purposes of the several delegates is better than
the aggregate of the action of the Convention, but of that neither the government nor the people of the North can judge.
In all her relations to the Union, the State must be judged
by the action and words of her delegates in Convention assembled. WVhat is that judgment?
There is no hearty acquiescence in the result of the war.
There is no love of the nation as a unit. There is a formal
assent to certain terms of restoration, but the promise is kept
to the ear only to be broken to the heart. These delegates
sue for pardon for their late leaders, but they most praise the
worst traitors of them all. They prohibit slavery, but they
file their claim for compensation for the emancipated slaves.
They instruct the General Assembly to provide for the protection of the freedman, but they say he shall have only partial rights in the courts. They declare the war debt null
and void, but they devise a cunning proviso through which
speculators may drive a chariot and four. They admit the
supremacy of the Federal Constitution, but they reaffirm the
legality of secession.
Have they a right to declare that their new Constitution
is "strictly republican" in form?  Have they a right to assert that they have "done all things needful and proper, on
their part, to the full and complete restoration of their State
to her rights and privileges as a member of the American
Union "?
287 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XXXIII.
A VISIT TO THE HOME OF JUDGE LYNCH.
ALBANY, November 10, 1865.
I HAVE reached the Southern point of my Southern trip.
This town is in the southwestern corner of Georgia,
about forty miles from the Alabama line, and about sixty
miles above the Florida line.
Winter seems scarcely nearer now than when I left New
York on the 1st of September. I write this afternoon in a
room with northern exposure, without a fire, and with my
two windows wide open.   The landlord said to me this
morning that he reckoned he would have to get a stove into
the office of the hotel pretty soon if this cold snap continued.
There has yet been but one frost here this fall, and that was
so slight it did no damage. A dozen varieties of roses are
in full bloom and fragrance in the gardens and dooryards of
the town; wild-flowers blossom in the old fields and by the
roadside; the grass still shows freshness and greenness; the
leaves of the mulberry are beginning to fall, but those of the
oak and china and willow have hardly lost any of their summer color.
Albany is the shire town of Dougherty County, and contains a population of twenty-five hundred persons. It is on
the bank of the Flint River, and is the terminus of the Southwestern Railroad. A tri-weekly line of stage-coaches runs
hence to Thomasville, ten miles above the Florida line, at
which point connection is made with another line for Tallahassee and with the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad for Savannah. The town is reached from AIilledgeville, one hundred
and forty miles distant, by fourteen hours of railroad riding,
in cars wretched beyond Northern conception, over a roadfl
288 
WELCOMLING THE YANKEES.
on which not more than an average of one train per day is
disabled by breakage or being thrown from the track.  The
"accident" to the train on which I came down was trifling,
and only detained us an hour. I expect, however, to be
thrown firom the track on my return.   Albany has three
small churches, two small hotels, half a dozen very large
cotton warehouses, a good many groggeries, and one small
schoolhouse.  Its private residences are neither large nor
pretty, and the general aspect of the town is dirty, slovenly,
and shiftless. It has a filthy river on the east, and lowland
piney woods on the south, west, and north.
During the war the town was a place of considerable importance. Its remote distance from any point held by our
forces or easily accessible to them rendered it a safe storehouse; and the Confederate quartermaster and commissary
departments had here, during the years 1863 and 1864, an
immense bakery and many millions of dollars worth of supplies of all kinds. "If any of Sherman's raiding parties could
have pushed through in the fall of 1863 or the spring of 1864,
and destroyed what we had here," said an ex-Rebel quartermaster to me, "it would have crippled us more than the loss
of half of Johnston's army." But none of our forces got
here during the war, and so the town suffered no damage,
and appears about as well, I understand, as it did four or five
years ago.
I was told by several persons in the upper country that I
would find Albany one of the worst places in the State both
in regard to morals and Unionism. It was a rabid secession
town in 1860-61, and sent many soldiers very early to the
war.   Such of the returned soldiery as I have met seem,
as a general thing, quiet and well disposed; but many of the
towns-people who did not go into the field are exceedingly
bitter, and do not accept the new order of things in either a
wise or kindly spirit.  "I have my pardon in my pocket, and
have taken the oath three times," said one of them in my
289
I:"
8 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
hearing last evening, "but I'11 be d-d if I a'n't as big a
Rebel as I ever was!"    Whereunto another responded,
"That's jest my case, only I ha'n't got my pardon yet."   I
judge that these two men are representatives of a considerable element in the population.
I reached the place at five o'clock last evening.  Half an
hour later I sat on the steps of the hotel waiting supper.
There were five of us talking with each other as travelling
acquaintances will. While we sat there up came an ex-Rebel
colonel and a county judge. Both were tipsy. The colonel
singled me out, -perhaps because I was the youngest and
smallest of the party, - and asked me to drink with him. I
declined. He pressed his invitation, and the judge joined his
importunity. I declined again and again, telling them that I
never drank, and would not begin now. The colonel swore
I should drink with them, and threw his arms around me as
I sat in my chair. I rose and disengaged myself and stepped
into the hotel. He asked each of the other gentlemen to
drink, and each of them also declined. "I'll get my pistol,
somebody shall drink with me," he added with an oath, as he
started for his store five or six doors away. " He means you,"
said one of the gentlemen, as I resumed my seat. I answered
that I thought he would n't trouble me. Directly he came
out of the store with a revolver in his hand, exclaiming,
"Now show me the man who won't drink with me! "  The
landlord seemed to anticipate trouble, for he stepped out and
met the colonel, and persuaded him that some one on the
opposite side of the street was calling him.
That the judge and one of the leading merchants should
be on a drunken spree appeared a very good beginning, even
for Albany. Another day was to show me that this was a
small matter, albeit it involved the possibility of being shot
at by a half-drunken colonel.
Last night there was a ball in the upper part of the town.
One of the boarders at the hotel courteously invited me to
290 
WELCOMING THE YANKEES.
accompany him to it. Anxious as I was to see the beauty
and grace of the town, I declined the invitation, pleading
extreme weariness, that I might not again give offence. This
morning we all learned that the dance broke up soon after
midnight in a drunken row.  Pistol-shots were fired, but no
one was hit, though two or three persons were somewhat
beaten with clubs, and one man was wounded with a knife.
This morning, while walking on one of the back streets, I
was suddenly confronted by a man with bruises and blood
on his face, and a stout dagger in his hand. "Now I've got
ye" " he exclaimed, as we met at the corner.  I dodged from
the encounter, and assured him he was mistaken in his man.
"Be you Pete Beeson?" he inquired.  I told him I was not
Mfr. Beeson, and had not the honor of Mr. Beeson's acquaintance. "Then give me your hand and take a drink." I shook
hands with him, declined the invitation to "try a little whiskey" which he pressed upon me, and left him making drunken
apologies to the fence.
I began to suspect that Albany would be an excellent location for a temperance society. Yet all this was but the
beginning of my experience.
About noon half a dozen of us sat on the hotel steps waiting dinner.  I was talking with an ex-Rebel captain.  Down
the sidewalk, some twenty-five yards from where we sat, we
suddenly became aware that a quarrel was progressing. It
was between a negro man and a young fellow with his left
arm in a sling. I noticed that the latter wore an army blouse,
and of course supposed him to be a soldier. He struck out
three or four times, but the negro was much the taller of the
two and kept out of his reach. Nothing coming of this, he
cli-engaged his arm from the sling and turned and seized a
long-handled shovel from half a dozen in front of a store.
The negro stepped into the store, the soldier striking a blow
at him as he went, and following him up. In an instant he
shuffled out, one of the clerks striking him about the head
291 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
and shoulders with a small stick. Thus far the matter had
not become serious and no one interfered.
The old negro walked down past the hotel, but soon
stopped to excitedly explain the affair to three or four men
standing there. While he was doing so, the soldier rushed
out of the store above with a large and ugly looking knife in
his hand. Seeing this, the clerk of the hotel said to the
negro, "Come, come, old Bill, if you don't want to get into
trouble you'd better get out of town at once."   Old Bill
did n't heed the warning, however. Thinking he might be
moved by a stranger, and desiring to prevent a possible
conflict between the soldiers and the negroes, I stepped to
him, took him by the arm, and said, "There, John, that'11ll
do for this time; now go home." He at once started, while
I resumed my seat, and half a dozen fellows rushed across
from the opposite side of the street, shouting, "Kill him!"
"Kill the d-n nigger!" "Somebody shoot him!"  He soon
turned the corner and was out of sight, the whole affair having occupied scarcely two minutes.
In a moment more one of the three or four men to whom
the negro had volunteered his excited explanation  stepped
up in front of me and demanded why I had interfered in the
business.  I answered, "Simply to stop the quarrel."
"What business was the quarrel to you?"
"The same as to every good citizen."
"Well, by G-d, we don't'low any outside interference
yerabouts,- do you hear?"
"0 yes, I hear very well."
He passed along a few steps, and I supposed he had concluded his advice. Not so, however, for he returned with,
"Did you interfere for the white man or the nigger?"
"For neither. I simply interfered to stop a quarrel."
"Well, by G-d! I'm the responsible party in this business, and if you've got anything to say you kin jest say it
to me."
292 
WELCOMING THlE YANKEES.
"I've nothing to say except to hope that if you are the
responsible party, you'll do just what I was trying to do,prevent any fighting."
"You interfered on the side of the nigger, and no one don't
do that yere while I'm'round, - do you hear?"
"' Certainly, sir; but you make a mistake,- I interfered
on nobody's side.  I merely told the negro he had better go
home; and I did that only to break up a quarrel and prevent
a street fight; and that, I'm sure, any one, whether a citizen
or a stranger, had a perfect right to do."
The fellow would not be satisfied, and I sat for full five
minutes and heard one unbroken stream of half-drunken taunt
and invective and billingsgate.  When he said he could jest
lay me down and stamp on me, I could n't help remarking
that, as he was four inches the tallest, and weighed one hundred and eighty to my one hundred and thirty, he was probably correct in his judgment in regard to the matter.   I
thought he might strike me, but he did n't, and I kept my
seat.  Having assured me that I was no gentleman, and that
if I had any pluck I would know how to resent an insult, he
allowed a couple of companions to lead him awav.
I have been thus minute in detailing this ridiculous affair
because of the importance to which it grew in the course of
a few hours.
Coming out from dinner half an hour later, the landlord
told me that the negro had always been free; that the young
fellow with the blue army blouse was no soldier, but one of
their citizens; and that my assailant was an ex-maajor of the
Confederate service. He added that he was a very fierce
manl when in liquor, and had recently horsewhipped a person.
He further added that perhaps I had better keep out of the
way this afternoon. I told him I did n't anticipate any trouble.
I had hardly taken my seat among the gentlemen on the
steps before one of the major's friends passed into the hotel.
He soon sent the clerk to call me, and then warned me that
293 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the major was always armed, and that I had better keep out
of sight unless I was prepared to defend myself. I thanked
him for his service, and reiterated that I did n't believe there
would be any difficulty. He had scarcely gone before I was
waited upon by a citizen of the town, who, in courteous
phrase, informed me that my interference on behalf of the
negro as against a white man would not be readily overlooked by all persons. I replied to him that I had supposed
the white man to be a soldier; and I presumed no one would
undertake to say that I might not interfere between a soldier
and a negro.  "But," said I, "there was no interference in
behalf of any one, my whole purpose being to save the town
from a conflict between the soldiers on one side and the negroes on the other side."  The explanation was entirely satisfactory to him, he said, and he would endeavor to put the
matter in its proper light before the major and his friends,
of whom I had better keep clear all the afternoon. I said I
had been already warned.  In less than ten minutes I was
waited upon by citizen number two, who asked my name,
residence, and business. I gave him my card, and told him
my business was my own affair, with which I recognized no
one's right to interfere. He also warned me to beware of
the major, and added that he had just bought a horsewhip
and was drinking pretty heavily.  I assured him that  I
should go about my business as if nothing had happened.
And so I did: that business being, first, to keep an appointment at head-quarters; second, to write the first part
of this letter; and, third, to nurse my regular tri-weekly
turn of chill and fever.
In going to head-quarters and returning therefrom I saw
nothing of my friend the major with the pistol and knife and
horsewhip. I met citizen number one, however, who told
me I was doing a very foolhardy thing in being on the street
unless I was prepared to give as well as take. He said the
major would horsewhip me at sight, and finally advised me
294 
WELCOMIING TI-IE YANKEES.
to leave town forthwith. I answered that I came here expecting to remain till to-morrow morning, and had not yet
seen any reason for changing my original determination.
Writing quietly in my room, lying buried under a warmthless mountain of bedclothes while the ague shook me, sleeping a hot and disturbed sleep while the fever burned me,so the afternoon wore away.
I woke a few minutes before six, and found the clerk of
the hotel waiting,.  Hle came to advise me as a fiiend, he
said, not to leave my room. I asked him for a detailed account of the situation. The afternoon had been very lively,
and the evening was quite promising. Mly friend the major
had been joined by my friend the colonel and my friend the
judge and several other high-toned Southern gentlemen, all
of whom were somewhat in liquor and deeply incensed at
"the d-d Yankee" for "taking a nigger's part."  Various
members of the gang had been to the hotel and done me the
honor of inquiring for my room, and had severally been told
that I was out. Now that supper time was near, they had
come in a body, and were anxious to have me show my
"d-d Yankee face."
It further appeared that the old negro had made complaint
at head-quarters of the man who drew a knife on him, - the
little fellow whose arm was in a sling and whose body was
in a blue blouse. The captain had sent out a corporal and
four men to arrest him, the negro going along to point him
out. In front of the hotel the military had fallen in with the
major's gang, and a conflict had ensued in which his new
horsewhip was worn up on the negro's head and shoulders.
The soldiers were powerless to protect the negro, and retired
without being able either to effect the arrest of the lame man
or the major. The gang now stood in an attitude of defiance, swearing that no one should be arrested by the "d-d
Yankees," and the post commandant had taken no measures
to assert his authority or to put down the disturbance.
295 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
I dismissed the clerk and took the matter into consideration. Clearly, it would be useless to appeal to the military,
of whom there are but thirty stationed here. Should I borrow a revolver and use it if attacked?
While I debated the question with myself, - one voice saying "yes" and the other arguing that it would be foolish to
get into a quarrel with a gang of drunken ruffians who ruled
the town, - citizen number three presented himself.   He
also came to advise me as a friend. The crowd, he said, was
very much excited. If I was seen on the street or in the
hall of the hotel I might be shot at once; or I might be
seized and carried out of town and "strung up "; or I would
at least be assaulted and much bruised unless I shot two or
three men at sight. Was n't this a pretty dish to set before a little Yankee whose only weapons were a pen and
inkstand! I suggested to the good citizen that I thought he
was exaggerating the danger very much.
Just then the landlord himself entered my room.   He
asked me if I was going down to supper. I responded that
I wanted nothing but a cup of tea, and intended to go down
for that.  He begged to send it to me, saying that it would
not be advisable to appear in the dining-room. I asked him
if he expected to allow a gang of drunken brawlers to insult
the guests of the house. He replied that he would close the
doors against them, but that the excitement was so great he
could not be responsible for the consequences. So I consented to take a cup of tea in my room, and my visitors and
advisers retired.
It seemed to me that everybody had conspired to raise a
bugaboo for my benefit, and I was inclined to treat the whole
thing as a piece of pleasantry, though I could not but admit
that it had frightened half a dozen gentlemen. I had not
seen a man of the gang since the major left me before dinner, and I proposed to myself to go down the back way and
come upon the street for a reconnoissance.
296 
WELCOMING THE YANKEES.
Just then, while I finished my tea, I heard an excited
shout in front of the hotel; and, going into the hall to see
what it meant, I met the clerk, who advised me to leave the
house as soon as possible, offering, himself, to conduct me by
the back way to a safe retreat.
Before I made answer the landlord again appeared.   He
had been a captain in the Confederate service, and is a very
courteous and well-disposed man. He was apparently much
embarrassed, but finally made me understand that hlie, too,
thought it advisable for me, on his account as well as my
own, to leave the house. He had already been set upon by
the gang for declining to show them the way to my room,
and expressed the belief that they would "go through the
house" before ten o'clock, unless he could be able to prove
to them that I had vacated the premises.   He would bolt
and block the doors if I insisted on remaining, and would
defend his guests to the last; but he hoped I would not deem
it necessary to insist upon meeting a gang of twelve or fifteen
drunken men. He sincerely regretted that I had been disturbed, and said he had endeavored without avail to explain
the affair in its true light. He would have me conducted to
a quiet private house, and hoped to see me again on a more
auspicious occasion.
AWas it worth while to remain and insist upon my rights?
I had not seen one of the gang of ruffians; but I had been
told that a dozen or more leading men of the town were in
it, backed, of course, by the usual crowd of idle fellows of the
)aser sort. Should I allow myself to be forced into a quarrel on an issue that I had not made? I finally concluded to
retire from the field.
The clerk, a slight but wiry young man who had served
three years as a private in the Rebel army, offered again to
see me out of the difficulty.  "I know nothing of you," he
said, "except that you are the guest of the house, and appear to be a gentleman, and no one shall disturb you unless
13*
297 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WVAR.
over my dead body." I smiled at his fervor, and told him I
had no idea that any one would trouble me, and I could n't
think of taking his services as a guard. He insisted on going
with me, however, and stepped into an adjoining room and
borrowed a pistol.
It was now eight o'clock, and as we passed into the lower
hall I could hear the noisy surging of the drunken crowd in
front of the hotel. The landlord reconnoitred at the main
door, and reported that it would not be safe to attempt to
leave by that. So we filed out through the back yard and
the back gate. Reaching the street, we marched in solid
column, two abreast; the clerk on the right with pistol in
hand, the Yankee on the left with overcoat and blanket, and
the negro boy in the rear with my valise on his head.
Through how many back streets did we march? say,
rather, through how many did we not march! I had no
idea there were half as many in the whole town. I was
possessed with a strong desire to sit down and have a hearty
laugh; but when I asked my guard if I might shout, he said,
"Hist, there's some of'em!"   Sure enough, there were
three tipsyish men blundering along in the darkness scarcely
twenty yards away.  "I heerd'era say dey shoot de G-d
d-n Yankee if dey gits de chance," said the negro boy in a
low voice. I heard the clerk's pistol click, and he pushed
me to the middle of the street. "I'11l stand by you," he said,
and I have no doubt the hot blood jumped in his veins.  lie
breathed more freely when we and they had passed, and
vouchsafed the sole remark, "I know the ways here better
than you do."   After that we marched in solemn silence
through the heavy sand, and finally halted at a large white
house just in the edge of the town.
Here he left me, with the simple explanation that the
hotel had no accommodations, and wished me to have a bed
till morning. The old lady had evidently received lodgers
from there before, for she said it was all right, and at once
sent me up to this pleasant room in which I write.
298 
WELCOMING THE YANKEES.
AMERICUS, November 11.
I ran the blockade this morning, and am now thirty-seven
miles from Albany and my friends of knives and pistols and
horsewhips.
It appeared to me that if I was in such danger as my advisers represented, I might be waited upon at the depot about
the time of leaving the city. Having already fallen back
once, it did not seem advisable to get into further trouble at
the last moment.   Wherefore, I concluded to take the advice
of the hotel-clerk and give my friends the slip, by taking the
freight train at half-past five instead of the mail train at halfpast seven.
While I walked on the platform of the depot in the breaking, morning, laughing at the ridiculous position in which I
found myself, one of the train hands spoke to one of the station hands: "Jest be'round when the mail goes out, an' I
reckon you'11 see fun." "Why?" said thle other. "0, wa'al
I do' know, but there's a Yankee he's got in trouble with
some o' our folks, an' they's comin' down to see him off this
mornin'."
" Thank you, good friends," said I, to myself, "but I shall
not be here when you come down." WVe made the run hither
in about four hours, stopping half an hour for breakfast.
An hour and a half after my arrival the passenger train
came along up.  Finding that one of the men who stopped
here was firom Albany, I engaged him in conversation; and
finally, telling him I had heard something about a fuss down
there, led him along to give me the whole story.
He had n't seen the Yankee, he said, but gentlemen told
him that he seemed a civil enough sort of fellow.  IIe
'lowed the Yankee might ha' interfered on the nigg er's side
if thar'd been any'casion to do so; but gentlemen told him
hlie'd only told the nigger to go'long home and mind his
business and not get up a row with the soldiers. He did n't
know for certain where the Yankee slept last night; some
299 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
said he went off with the Federal captain, and some said he
cum up to next station horseback, and some said the land lord had hid him away; and for his part he couldn't tell
nothin' about it'cept that he did n't stay at the hotel.  He
knew about that; the men they went up to his room and got
some newspapers he left, some Yankee papers; and then
they kinder sarched the house all over like, but they could n't
find nothin' of him.
"I don't know," he continued, "whar he stayed, sir. The
Yankees is right smart, and I reckon he knew what he was
about, like, all the time. Some on'em reckoned as how
they'd find him at the depo' this mornin', but somebody else
said he'd gone off on the fireight train, and they did n't come
down.   I ha'n't got no feelin' agin the Yankees, but some o'
our folks has, and they don't like them interferin' so much
with the niggers."
From another source I have also learned that there was
much noise and excitement about the hotel till midnight;
that there were twenty or more half-drunken men around
there for a long time; that some of the rooms were searched
for the offending Yankee. So many of the leading men
w-ere in the spree that very little could be done to put down
the row, which exceeded any that had occurred there for a
dozen years.
Thinking of the affair now and at this distance, it still
seems as if everybody had conspired to exaggerate its proportions to me. Three days ago I should have deemed it
utterly impossible for anything I could say or do to produce
such an exhibition of feeling.  YWhile the result indicates
the under-current of passion, I cannot believe that any sober
citizen of Albany sanctions the work of his townsmen on
yesterday.
oloo 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
XXXIV.
THE GREAT MILITARY PRISON OF GEORGIA.
ANDDErSOIVILLE, November 13, 1865.
GENTLEMAN  who came down from Macon this
morning tells me that a private telegram to Major General Wilson announces the hanging of Wirz on Friday
last. The man seems to have no friends even in the little
village where he lived so long.  In that he has-passed beyond the praise and blame of men is new hope for the Republic and new source for confidence in the sovereign people.
Let me without harsh words and with plain phrases paint
you the Andersonville of to-day, -draw it for you as it
;tood on the day when he died who made its name a worldwide synonyme of cruel barbarity.
I sat in the cars talking with an ex-Rebel major, formerly
on the staff of Howell Cobb when he had command of the
Georgia Reserves.   Suddenly he broke into something I
was saying with,  "There's  where  Captain  Wirz lived,"
pointing to the right of the track as we came southward. I
looked and saw a large unpainted wooden house, two stories
-high in the ridge, and scarcely one in the eaves, -a plain
Southern dwelling of the average country sort, with negro(quarters in the rear and a turnip-patch on the left.  A  sall)w-faced white woman looked from the window, and a largeeyed negro child stood on the doorsteps.
"W e are near Andersonville, then?" said I.  "Yes, An.
derson is only a mile and a half distant," he responded.   I
learned af-terwards that the place is generally called Anlerson hereabouts, the affix ville being of recent origin.  Years
ag,o it was simply Station Number Eight, and received its
301 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
present name, I am told, in honor of General Robert Anderson of Sumter fame.
Five minutes more and there flashed upon us through the
trees the white line of the cemetery fence, and in another
instant we caught a glimpse of the long rows of white headboards standing brightly in the noonday sunshine and within
the retired circlet of lofty trees. It was but a glance, and
then the high bank of the railroad-cut shut out the view.
In a moment more, however, we rolled out to the level, and
a score of persons rose to look through the windows and see
the famous stockade of dreadful memory.
Before the war Anderson numbered the following houses:
first, a small white church without steeple; second, Dyke's
house, with its adjoining saw-mill and grist-mill; third, a
small white depot building; fourth, a small, square, unpainted building of one room, in which the post-office was kept;
and fifth, a two-room log-cabin. This is all there was of the
village, though there were half a dozen houses not over a mile
away, of which the Widow Turner's was in sight.  These six
buildings yet remain, but the old post-office  and the Turner
house are unoccupied.
The village nowv contains about fifty buildings, great and
small; the great ones being two or three houses built for the
chief officers of the post and prison, and the buildings put up
for the commissary and quartermaster departments, and the
small ones being those erected for the soldiers and minor
officers of the guard.   All were cheaply built, none are
painted, and the general appearance of the place is squalid
and forbidding. The various buildings are scattered about
on a tract of over a hundred acres, which has a general
slope from the northwest toward the southeast. The whole
village lies west of the railroad.
The great stockade was the central feature of the famous
Andersonville prison, technically known to the Rebels as
"Camp Sumter."  Connected with this were the cook-hiouse,
302 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
the bake-house, the numerous forts, the officers' stockade, the
hospital stockade, the dispensary, the vegetable garden, the
Confederate hospital, the general cemetery, the pest-house,
and the small-pox cemetery. The great cemetery is nearly
north of the large stockade; and the hospital stockade, with
its accessories of dispensary and vegetable garden, is nearly
south thereof. The whole prison lies east of the railroad.
One hundred and twenty rods nearly due east of the little
depot building is the southwest corner of the main stockade.
It originally contained fifteen acres, about five acres of
which were swamp. Eleven acres were afterward added to
the northern end, so that it now exists as a parallelogram,
rather less than twice as long north and south as it is wide
east and west.  Some seven or eight acres are south of the
little stream which crosses it. The swamp is mostly in that
part north of the brook. The extreme southern end is eighteen or twenty feet above the level of the water, and the slope
down to it is quite gradual. The bank north of the stream
is very steep, and the farther end of the stockade is at least
forty-five or fifty feet above the water level.
The stockade has a double wall, the outer one being about
one hundred and sixty feet from the inner one, and each being
built of logs ten or twelve inches in diameter, set five feet in
the earth, and standing twenty feet above the surface. The
logs are mostly pine. Those of the outer wall retain the bark.
Those of the inner wall are all peeled, and those of the original stockade are also hewn. As if this double wall were not
sufficient to guard against escape, a deep ditch was dug along
the southern and eastern sides, outside the outer wall of
course; and for a part of the distance on the northern and
eastern sides there is even a third wall of logs.
The sentry-boxes, built just below the top of the inner
wall, are mere frames, covered with a board rootf, and reached
by rude ladders. The boxes were forty-four in number,thirteen on each side, seven on each end, and one at each
303 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
corner. These all remain as though they were but yesterday occupied, except one on the western side near the northern end.  Much use has broken some of the ladders, but the
greater part still stand beneath the sentry-boxes.
There is but one gate in the outer wall. It is in the
western side, not far from the southern end. In the inner
wall are two gates, one on each side of the brook.  They
are strong and heavy, and turn harshly on their hinges.  In
the right-hand fold of each is cut a small door for single
passage.  The staples and bars remain, but some one has
carried away the locks.
Within the stockade proper there is, as compared with
Florence, scarcely nothling to see. In the days when it was
packed with from thirty to tlirty-five thousand men, the
whole surface was covered with tents and mud-and-stick cabins. Of these not more than fifty remain, and they are all
south of the brook.
In the northern end there are only the five long sheds
originally built as barracks for men not sick enough to be
sent to hospital. They are simply roofed frames, without
either siding or flooring. Each is thirty by one hundred
and twenty feet in size.  There is notlingi about them to
indicate their latter-day use.  The famous caves were in
the bank north of the brook and swamp, but the rains have
so cut away the bank that not more than a dozen of them
can be found, and of these only small sections remain. Here,
too, were the equally famous springs, but the washing down
of the bank has also ruined them.  Little brooklets find their
way out from the red earth and mottled clay; but where
"Love's Delight" and "Jacob's Well" and "Heart's Ease,"
and all the other comforting springs were, can never more
be shown. Just in the brow of the bank were the wells;
one can find a dozen or more of them, cut trimly down into
the firm red earth for thirty or thirty-five feet, but now waterless and liable to engulf unwary wanderers.
304 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
In the southern end were gathered the last prisoners, and
here, accordingly, are abundant evidences of life. Though
not more than fifty of the huts remain, there are fragments
and ruins of at least a couple of hundred more. The gate
on this side the brook was the main gate. Just inside it, on
the left, is a small, square log-cabin, whose use is suggested
by the counters and platform scales within.  On the right of
the gate are five open sheds, running north and south. Each
is twenty by one hundred feet in size, and the slope of the
ground makes them about four feet high in the eaves in the
end toward the wall, and about nine feet in the end toward
the brook. The rear of each is scarcely four feet distant
from the dead-line. Far down in front of the gate, almost
over to the eastern wall, is another shed of the same general
character as those nearer the gate. Under these six sheds
is the record of an heroic struggle for existence.  Here is
gathered everything all these prisoners had for house-building, - three or four wagon-loads of bits of board and split
slabs. As the number in prison decreased, those who remained brought hither what the departed had left, choosing
to build their rough bunks under a roof out of sun and rain.
Nothing in the whole prison is more touching than this palpable evidence that these sons of the nation were so eager
to get even the covering of these miserable roofs. Some of
their bunks and benches remain intact; but, generally, the
little all that constituted everything is scattered at random.
Complete as is the general destruction, the ruins are of wondlrfil suggestiveness.  You find half a stool, a broken knife,
the handle of a huge wooden spoon, a split checker-board, an
old pipe, a wooden hook, a bit of cunning carving on a beam,
and, finally,- is it a barber's chair? -for, improbable as the
presence of such a luxury seems, this combination of a seat
and legs and braces and sloping back could hardly have been
anything else than a veritable barber's chair.
In the whole stockade there is not a single tree.   Tho
T
305 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
ground was originally well-wooded, but Winder cut away
everything. In the northwestern corner, near the outer wall,
he left a single tall pine, whose grateful shade could never
fall within the stockade proper,- left it as if to tantalize the
weary and fevered prisoners through the blazing summer
days.
How dared any one ever deny the existence of a dead-line
here? It is twenty feet inside the inner wall. For a part
of the distance it was a palpable thing,- four inch strips of
twenty feet siding, nailed on the top of posts three feet high.
For another portion of the distance it was, however, marked
only by these little posts twenty feet apart. That men in
such a packed prison should not crowd beyond this undefined
line between these posts was simply an impossibility. IHellish malignity could not have devised a surer way to lead
half-crazed men to swift destruction than was found in thus
establishing this unmarked line.  A small portion of the finished line remains intact; elsewhere the posts still stand,
but the strips of board have been torn off. That much of
the line has disappeared for a memorial of the place scarcely
needs to be said.
The stocks was an institution much in use during the earlier days of the prison, but discontinued after some months.
The instruments were in the extreme southwestern corner,
between the inner and the outer walls of the stockade.
Nothing now remains of it but a couple of log sheds in a
tumble-down condition.
The bake-house stands on the south bank of the brook,
between the inner and the outer walls of the stockade. It
is thirty by eighty feet in size, with two rooms below and a
garret above.   It contained two ovens, each twelve feet
square. One cf them remains in pretty fair condition, but
the other is ruined.  Some of the shelves and cases can still
be seen.   The bunks in the loft yet retain the straw on
which the workmen lay. The well at the corner of the
306 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
building is partly filled with rubbish; and of the dozen little
slab cabins near by only four or five are in condition for
inspection.
The enclosure for sick call was also between the inner and
outer walls. It was a long pen at the right of the main gate
of the inner wall, discontinued before the closing days of the
prison.  No trace of its existence remains.
The bridges were two in number, one on the eastern side
and the other on the western side of the stockade proper.
The one on the east is in good order, as is the corduroy road
up the northern bank of the stream. That on the west is
passable, but needs much repair, or would need it if there
were use therefor.
Connected also directly with the stockade, though not
within it, is the cook-house, a building standing forty or fifty
rods north of the northwestern corner of the stockade walls,
near the road to the cemetery. It is a roofed frame, forty
by one hundred and twenty feet in size. In it were twelve
great iron kettles, which the military authorities took away
some time ago. It is now an empty shed, around which are
many whitened bones.
The officers' stockade exists merely as a pen two hundred
feet long by one hundred and fifteen feet wide, situated about
twenty-five rods from the depot, and half that distance from
the railroad track.  In it were one or two barrack buildings,
which were burned at the time of the evacuation. This
stockade was not much used, the captured officers being generally confined in Macon.
The hospital stockade, sixty or seventy rods directly south
of the general stockade, is an enclosure of eight acres, its
length east and west being about double its width north and
south. It is built with logs, only ten feet high, which, considering that no one went to the hospital till he was past walking,
seems a needless waste of good lumber that might have been
given to the boys in the general stockade for firewood in the
307 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
winter time. Posts were set within this enclosure for twentytwo buildings, each twenty by one hundred and fifteen feet
in size. Seven of these appear to have been finished; that
is, roofed and sided.  Nine more were roofed, but not sided.
The remaining six never got further than the corner-posts.
Twelve of the whole number now exist as mere sheds. None
of them ever had any floor but the earth, and eight never
were sided. Of these twelve only nine have chimneys,mere piles of sticks and clay, with a huge fireplace facing
either end of the building.  A  score of broken bunks are
scattered about, but the beds seem mostly to have been
spread on the earth. The other four buildings, wholly or
partly completed, have been torn down, mainly to use the
lumber in building the cemetery fence.  There are three
deep wells in the stockade, and a small kitchen or cookhouse just without the single gate.
The dispensary is a plain two-story building, about twenty
rods west of the hospital stockade. It has three rooms on
the lower floor, and two on the upper floor, with a second
floor piazza on the western front. Under the southern end
is a cellar about fifteen feet square, in which is now collected
considerable rubbish. The central lewer room of the house
was the shop. It is arranged with a counter through the
middle, and shelves on either side and at the farther end.
The medicines in use appear to have been principally such
roots, seeds, and barks as could be found in the Confederacy.
They were put up in packages about three inches square
and six inches long, each bearing a label of thle following
character: "Pinckneya Pubens (Georgia Bark).   Properties, Tonic and Anti-periodic.   Directions, Infusion made
with one ounce of the bark to one pint of boiling water; let
it stand till cold, and then strain. Dose, From two to three
fluid ounces. From the C. S. Miedical Laboratory, 3Iacon,
Ga." There seem to have been two or three hundred of
these packages in store when the dispensary was given up,
308 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
every one of which has been broken open; and the floor of
this small middle room is covered four or five inches deep
with a mass of bark, seed, paper, sticks, and roots. I was
able to find the labels of nine different preparations, to wit:
prickly elder, pink root, sumach berries, queen's delight,
poplar bark, wormn seed, wild cherry bark, wild ginger, and
Georgia bark.  Each was made ready for use by steeping
in water, and the dose was from one to three fluid ounces.
That there were other medicines than these is evident enough
from the fact that I found prescriptions for portions of quinine, camphor, and one or two other articles. In the mass of
rubbish and medicine I also found several scraps of paper
containing lists of men admitted on different days to the different divisions of the hospital. They give the name, the
regiment, company, and rank, and number of the detachment
to which they were assigned. I have part of the list of the
fifth division for October 21, 1864, which also gives the diagnosis of the disease.  The men were mostly from New
England, New York, and Pennsylvania regiments, and of
the aggregate number a fraction over three fourths were admitted for treatment of scurvy. Four were admitted from
5Iassachusetts and two from MIaine, and the bodies of these
six were lying in the cemetery before the end of the month.
Possibly the same mortality existed with respect to men from
other States, but I have no means of comparison.
A somewhat diamond-shaped tract of ground just west of
the dispensary is called the garden. It contains five or six
acres, and is enclosed by two deep ditches, four feet apart,
the earth removed being thrown up between them. Beyond
digging these ditches and grubbing out a few stumps, nothing
was ever done with the garden. If it was proposed to allow
the scurvy prisoners to make use of the plat for vegetable
raising, the scheme came to an early death.
They buried their dead, these prisoners of Andersonville,
in the pleasantest field of all the section hereabouts. It is
309 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
in the heart of the pines, and gives serene resting-ground for
men worn down in the battle. All about the graves the
wild-flowers of the country blossom,- all around them most
stately trees keep sturdy guard.
The cemetery covers forty-seven acres, and is nearly
square in form. It occupies a tract somewhat larger than
the old field, a portion of the timber on the north and the
east        having also been enclosed.   The whitewashed picket
fence is completed on three sides; on the eastern side is a
rough board fence, which will soon, however, give way to a
picket like that on the other sides. In direction, the cemetery
is west of north from the stockade; in distance, it is about
one third of a mile from the northern line thereof. The cemetery is laid out in four nearly equal sections, by cross-roads
intersecting near the centre of the enclosure.  The north and
south road is partly graded; the east and west road is merely
staked out, and is not 4likely to be soon finished. The entrance is by a plain gate about midway in the southern line.
Inside the fence, on the right of the gate, on the transverse
section  of a    cross, is the inscription:
NATIONAL CEMETERY.
ANDERSONVILLE.
On the left of the gate, inscribed upon a similar neat white
board,  is this impressive and appropriate inscription: 
On FAIE'S eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And GLORY guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
On the eastern side of the road from this gate, that is, in
the southeastern quarter of the cemetery, are three sections
of graves, separated by broad alleys running east and west.
Each of these sections contains about fourteen hundred
graves, in long rows of over a hundred each. On the western side of the road, that is, in the southwestern quarter, are
310 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
two similar sections, separated also by an alley, and having
about the same number of graves in the long rows. Where
the first of these alleys crosses the main road, on the right
and    on the left, are these inscriptions:
"Whether in the prison drear
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest place for man to die
Is where he dies for man."
"The hopes, the fears, the blood, the tears,
That marked the battle strife,
Are now all crowned by victory
That saved the nation's life."
Where the second alley crosses are similarly set up, on the
right       and on the left, the following memorial passages:
"A thousand battle-fields have drank
The blood of warriors brave,
And countless homes are dark and drear
In the land they died to save."
"Then shall the dust
Return to the earth as it was;
And the spirit shall return
Unto God who gave it."
In the northwestern quarter, in the extreme corner of the
cemetery, are the graves of the guard, one hundred and fifteen in number, from the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Georgia Reserves. In the northeastern quarter is a solid section of over
five thousand graves, in rows of about two hundred each;
and        here stands the following motto:
"Through all Rebellion's horrors
Bright shines our nation's fame:
Our gallant soldiers, perishing,
Have won a deathless name."
In the centre of the enclosure, at the crossing of the roads,
is the forty-feet pine flag-staff, erected in July, by the burial
party which came out from Washington with Miss Clara
Barton, of Massachusetts. Nearer to this than any other
311 
THlE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
are the graves of the six prisoners hung July 11, 1864, by
their companions, for rascalities within the stockade.*
These 12,882 soldiers' and sailors' graves are each marked
with a plain white head-board thirty inches high and ten
inches wide, inscribed on the inside with name, regiment,
company, rank, and date of death. At first the bodies were
buried so far apart that there is often more than a foot of
space between the edges of the head-boards; but in the large
section in the northeastern corner, where those who died last
winter and spring are buried, the space is never more than
four inches and in many cases is scarcely two. The first
recorded death was February 27, 1864, the last April 28,
1865, giving an average of about nine hundred and twenty
deaths per month for fourteen months. In the months of
August and September, 1864, the average of deaths appears,
however, to have been nearly five hundred per week; and
there were many occasions when the number exceeded one
hundred per day.
Across the Sweet WTater Creek, in the oaks, about a hundred rods distant, and south of east in direction from the
hospital stockade, was the pest-house. It simply consisted
of three log cabins, each about ten by fifteen feet in size.
One of the number has been torn down, but the other two
remain, and one of them is occupied by a "cracker" family.
The bodies of those who died of small-pox are buried in
an old field about thirty rods northeast of the pest-house.
There are sixty-four graves, a large proportion of them being
of members of Tennessee regiments. The white head-boards
show that the first death from this disease took place March
12, 1864, within a month after the occupation of the stockade, and the last on July 19, 1864. The graves will be
enclosed in a little cemetery five rods square.
The troops on duty here were, as I have already indicated,
the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Georgia Reserves. They occupied
* See Postscript, page 315.
312 
THlE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
a collection of log-cabins near the depot, and another collec tionl west of the liospital stockade, say one hundred in the
aggregate, some of which are now vacant, while others are
occupied by thte negroes.  For the use of their sick two com fortable buildings were erected near the railroad, seventy-five
rods from the depot, each two stories in height and twenty
by one hundred feet in size. They are now occupied for
the hotel.
There were but two storehouses. They are close by the
depot, one on either side the railroqd track. The quarter masters' building is thirty by one hundred and five feet in
size, and eight feet high in the eaves; the commissary build ing is of the same height, and forty-five by two hundred and
sixty feet in size.   It can very readily be seen that the
Rebels were utterly unable to keep a week's full rations on
hand, even when the stockade contained no more than twenty
thousand prisoners. These buildings now furnish a temporary home for various persons, and contain the freight rooms,
a shoemaker's shop, a groggery, and the commissary supplies
for the negroes at work in the cemetery.
The forts are nine in number. The largest is at the southwestern corner of the stockade. It mounted twelve guns,
had three magazines, and enclosed the house and yard of the
WVidow Turner. At the southeastern corner is a double fort,
or perhaps I should say two single forts, one fronting south
and the other fronting east, and each mounting three guns.
3lidway on the eastern side, not far fiom the wall, is a small
fort mounting three guns; and far out in front of that, on
the hill, the beginning of a larger one, which never was finished, though two guns were mounted there. At the northeastern corner is a fort of five guns, and another of the same
size is at the northwestern corner, while between the two is
a smaller one of three guns. On the western side is a long
line of rifle-pits, and a square fort of five guns.  Here, then,
were forty-one guns, so mounted that nearly every acre of
14'
313 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the stockade could be swept with grape and canister.  The
forts remain with walls and ditches and platforms and magazines intact, but the cannon have been removed by the military authorities.
The head-quarters of Captain WVirz were at first in the
house already mentioned as near the railroad above the village. They were afterwards in the log-house of the Widow
Turner, enclosed in the large fort. It has two rooms and is
now a gaping skeleton. Finally they were in a large frame
building erected for that purpose over in the village, not far
from the church. A piazza has recently been added to it,
and it is now occupied by a white family.
In the northern part of the slope on which the village is
built are springs whose outflow forms a little stream running off to the southeast. Just south of the village are other
springs, which make a little stream flowing off to the northeast. These two form a junction in the marsh just west of
the bake-house, and thence flow eastwardly through the
stockade, giving a sluggish stream with an average depth of
ten or twelve inches and a width of four or five feet. It
appears much larger in the stockade, because the partial
damming of it by the eastern wall gives it a back-flow. If I
add that five thousand men would have found it scantily sufficient for their uses, the condition of thirty thousand men
compelled to find it sufficient will be very readily apparent.
"We had it pretty tough sometimes at Camp Chase," said
a young fellow who had been a Rebel soldier, and with whom
I talked at Fort Valley the other evening; "we had to tote
our wood nigh onto half a mile in the winter time." Before
I could answer, another young fellow, sitting on the opposite
side of the fireplace, responded, "Well, s'pose you'd been in
Andersonville, as nay father was, where you did n't have to
tote it at all; where you could see a thousand acres within a
quarter of a mile, and was n't allowed to have a stick of it! "
There seemed no occasion for me to speak to that point.
314 
THE ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
Andersonville was a good place for the prison. There is
plenty of wood and plenty of water, and the section is generally healthful. I have spoken of the water privilege that
was occupied; the one that was rejected can be seen by the
most unobservant tourist. The little stream that runs through
the stockade forms a junction, half a mile or less from the
eastern wall, with the Sweet Water Creek.  On this creek,
a short mile above this junction, a merciful man might have
located the stockade. The site is as good as that chosen by
WIinder; the labor of preparing it would not have been materially greater; the end of it might have adjoined the railroad track; its gate could not have been over half a mile from
the station; there would have been half a dozen springs; and,
best of all, there would have been the fish-fruitful and rapidly flowing current of the Sweet Water, a stream at least
twenty feet wide and sixteen inches deep.
POSTSCRIPT.
In a small book recently published, entitled "Nineteen
]1onths a Prisoner of War: by Lieutenant G. E. Sabre,
Second Rhode Island Cavalry," I find the following interesting account by an eyewitness of that most remarkable
and significant affair, -the trial and execution within the
stockade of the six base creatures on whose graves is the
record, "Hung July 11, 1864":  "A preliminary examination drew from the arrested man an
acknlowl]edgment of his crime; and at the same time the names
of a number of others implicated in the same acts were elicited.
Thie entire party was arrested, and a trial called.
On the next morning the sergeants of the different messes
were assembled, and out of this number twelve were chosen to act
as a jury.  Several officers were brought down from Macon to witness the trial. Those of the sufferers by the depredations of tihe
'raiders,' who were able to attend, were summoned to appear as
witnesses, and the accused were permitted to choose their own
counsel and witnesses.
315 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"The trial of the'raiders' was conducted with the strictest
impartiality.  After hearing all the evidence, the respective cases
were argued with considerable ability. The verdict given was
for the leading'raiders' to be hanged by the neck until dead, and
the remainder to suffer such other punishments as the extent of
their crines deserved.
"The following were the names of the men condemned to
death:
"William Collins, 88th Pennsylvania Volunteers.
"Patrick Delany, 83d Pennsylvania Volunteers.
"Andrew MIeever, United States Navy.
"Terrence Sullivan, 72d New York Volunteers.
"John Sarsfield, 140th New York Volunteers.
"Charles Curtis, 5th Rhode Island Artillery.
"On Monday, July 11th, 1864, a rude gallows was erected by
our own men on a rising ground at the southwestern portion of
the stockade.  The gallows was a rude piece of workmanship,
built out of material which the Rebel officials, but too willingly in
this case, provided. It was composed of two heavy, forked logs,
which were fixed perpendicularly in the earth, with a strong crossbeam resting in the forks at the top. A platform, about six feet
from the ground, was built and supported upon props, which, at
the final moment, were to be cut away, and the unfortunate men
launched between heaven and earth.  Six men from the camp
were designated to adjust the ropes about the necks of the condemned, and a seventh was detailed to execute the dropping of
the platform.
"At five o'clock in the afternoon the southwestern gate was
thrown open, and the prisoners were marched in under guard of
Rebel soldiers, commanded by Captain Wirz, accompanied by the
colonel commanding the post. The solemn procession moved in
fiont of the gallows and halted. By this time several thousand
prisoners had assembled to witness the execution.
"When the culprits were formed in line, the Rebel captain
stepped forward, and, as near as I could note them after the affair
was over, made the following remarks to those in charge:  "'PRISONERS,- I now hand over to you, in the same mainner
I received them, the men whom you have condemned to death on
the  gallows.'
31.6 
THE AIDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.
" Then turning to the culprits he said: -
"'You have been arrested and condemned by your own cornrades; I now turn you over to them, and leave them to carry out
the sentence or do as they may see fit.'
"After this, the colonel, captain, and guards immnediately left
the enclosure.
"The condemned now received the consolations of religion, administered by a Catholic priest, who was permitted by the Rebel
authorities to visit the stockade on different occasions. The priest
accompanied the culprits to the foot of the gallows, and engaged
in prayer. In the midst of these holy offices, Curtis took occasion
to make an attempt at escape. He succeeded in breaking through
the crowd, but was immediately pursued and returned.
" The prayer being finished, the six criminals, each accompanied by the persons appointed to execute the sentence, stepped
upon the platform. The criminals each said a few words, which
were scarcely audible, proclaiming theii innocence and begging
for mercy.
"W Vhen they had concluded what they had to say, the ropes
having been previously adjusted, a sack was drawn over their
heads, and the six men who accompanied them descended.
"At a given signal the platform was cut away, and five of the
unfortunate men were struggling in mid-air. The rope, however,
of the sixth broke, and the culprit fell to the earth.  He begged
piteously to be released, but his comrades were inexorable. Another rope was secured, and, when the five bodies were removed,
he was hanged alone.
"The bodies of the six men were removed from the stockade,
and buried in a separate part of the graveyard, distinct from those
who died in camp.
"During the execution, I observed outside of the enclosure the
whole of the Rebel troops on duty at Camp Sumter drawn up
facing the gallows. This was, as I understood afterwards, a precautionary measure, supposing some treachery on the part of the
prisoners."
817 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XXXV.
IATTERS IN SOUTHWESTERN GEORGIA.
FORT VALLEY, November 15, 1865
HIS is a pleasant little town of some sixteen hundred
to two thousand inhabitants, situated thirty miles below
]Nacon and about one hundred miles above the Florida line.
It is the principal place in Houston County, though not the
county seat, and is the junction of the Aluscogee and the
Southwestern Railroads. It is not a point for the cotton
trade, but does a large retail business with the surrounding
country.
The section of the State below here, of which Albany may
be called the centre, constituting Southwestern Georgia, is
one of the finest cotton-growing regions of the South. It
was not much traversed by either army, had no chance at
running the blockade, and could get very little shipment on
the railroads; consequently the surrender of the Southern
army found in the country about all the cotton that had been
raised in five years. Various gentlemen whom I met in the
Carolinas from time to time told me there was probably more
cotton in Georgia at the close of the war than in any other
Southern State; and many gentlemen of this State tell me
that the great bulk of the amount was in the southwestern
section. The estimates of the amount in forty counties of
this quarter average about two hundred thousand bales. The
estimates of the amount made this year in the same counties
average near ten thousand bales.
The men who did the fighting are everywhere the men
who most readily accept the issues of the war. "I can whip
any three Yankees in town," blustered an ex-Rebel officer at
Americus the other day; but when I inquired about his rec
3 i 8 
THiE WHITES OF SOUTHERN GEORGIA.
ord in the army I found that he was generally "seriously
unwell" on the day of battle. So, too, one of the most malignant men I met at Milledgeville served during the war in
the home guard, and, afterwards, as the commandant of a
prison.
The late Rebel privates of this section are, generally, doing
quite well. They mourn over the defeat of their armies, and
are very fond of showing that but for this little mistake, or
that little accident, or that other little blunder, the Confederacy would now be a great nation; but they appear, on the
whole, to accept the issue of the war in good faith and with
a determination to do their duties hereafter as orderly citizens. I should add, however, that there are more exceptions
to this general fact than I found in South Carolina.
However strongly the Carolinian clings to his State-rights
doctrine, he knows and feels that his State has been punished
as a criminal for promulgating and upholding that dogma.
The people of this section hold to the old faith on the abstract question, and do not seem to recognize that they have
been beaten in the contest; and hence there is much scolding at what is termed "Presidential interference in the affairs
of the State." Most noticeable as this is, there are very few
who desire any further war on the subject.  "I am as good
a Calhoun man to-day as ever I was," said a gentleman to
me at Smithville, "but you Yankees are too strong for us;
and now I propose to keep my opinions to myself and do my
duty as a good citizen."
An Americus merchant told me he was a hot Secessionist
all through 1860, and, though sixty years of age, shouldered
his musket early in 1861 and saw two years of service before he broke down.  "We staked everything on the result,
and for my part I submit to the issue without a murmur";
but before our conversation closed he said, "We have all
taken the amnesty oath; we have just as many rights now as
MIr. Johnson himself has; Georgia is again a member of the
319 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Federal Union, and I should like to see any Massachusetts
or New York congressman get up and deny her sovereignty!" and, warming with his subject, he soon added, " We're
not going there to ask favors, by G-d, but to demand our
rights!"
There is a pretty general contempt everywhere for the
"Yankees," the word standing for the resident of any Northern State.  Passing by a piazza in Americus on which three
or four men sat, I overheard one of themn remark, "~Well,
hell's the place for Yankees, and I want'em all to go thar
as soon's possible, and take the niggers'long with'em."
Talking with a very intelligent Macon gentleman, I asked
him how Northern men would be likely to succeed in business if they were to come into the State this winter; and his
answer was, "I think they would get along well enough in
the upper-country, but in the lower part of the State there
is such ignorance and prejudice that I reckon they would
see hard times a long while before they made a living,." I
must add, that in a general way I hear much expression of a
desire for an influx of Northern energy and Northern capital.
"Yet when the Yankees come down here," said a man from
Columbus, whom I sat next at the tea-table, "they'11ll have
to be Georgians if they reckon to make money."
I have seen not a little of feminine bitterness since coming
into the South; but the women of this section have favored
me with some unusual exhibitions during the past week.
One who took the train at Montezuma remarked to an acquaintance that the Yankees had all left that place, and she
hoped to the good gracious that none would ever be seen
there again; to which her fiiend responded, "I wish we
could git shet of'em forever up to our place." While going
through the hotel hall to my room, one evening, from the
parlor came a woman's voice asking Henry, the man of all
work, if any Yankees came on the train. He reckoned not.
"I'm thankful for that," answered the voice. When we
320 
THE FREEDMEN.
went down past Andersonville the other day,  a genteel
young lady who sat in the seat in front of mine said to the
gentleman who was her seatmate,  "Do you know, I'm
not sorry so many Yankees died here, for they'd no business
to come down and fight the South!"
I found many negroes below here who were run out of
the northern part of the State and out of South Carolina, on
the approach of Sherman's army. The beauty of the old
"patriarchal institution" appears in the fact that none but
the able-bodied negroes were brought away, - the love of the
late masters for their servants so prevailing that the aged
and infirm were left to the tender mercies of the Yankees!
These refugee negroes generally seem anxious to return
to their former homes, though the whites profess to think it
an indication of shiftlessness that they desire to see fathers
and mothers and children. I saw a party of eleven one
morning just starting out to walk over to Barnwell District,
South Carolina, a distance of at least two hundred and fifty
miles; and the members of another gang of fourteen told me
they wvere going to start for North Carolina so as to get
there by Christmas.
The idea that the whites and the blacks cannot live together is unusually prevalent throughout all this section.
"The negroes were the ignorant cause of the war, and are
bound to be exterminated before the conflict closes," said
one gentleman, a member of the late Convention; and I
have heard the same idea a dozen times expressed within a
week.  "We must  go down or they must," says another
man; and his associate responds, "D-d if it's us, though."
The colonization scheme has no supporters, I judge; for
I've not heard it mentioned since coming into the State.
I sat an hour or more in the Freedmen's Bureau agency
office at Albany one day last week. A planter from Mitchell
County came in with the stereotyped phrase, " Niggers
won't work, and everything is all going to ruin.'   He
14*                              u
I'D 2 1 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
wanted the captain to send him a dozen good fellows who
would work right along. I don't at all wonder that he has
trouble with his negroes,- white men would n't work for
him if he talked to them as he said he did to his present
hands. While he sat there, in came a planter from Lee
County, an ex-Rebel colonel, who works twenty men and
twelve women. He said he had found no trouble with his
negroes. As soon as he came home from the army he called
them together, explained to them that they were free and
could go where they pleased; said to them that he would
like to have all of them remain on the place, and would pay
them fairly for their work.  He gave them a week for consideration, and then every one was ready to contract with
him. The contract gives them house room, firewood, medical attendance, and one third of the crop. None of his
hands have left him, and all are ready to contract for the
next year. In the statement of these two cases lies the
whole problem: give the negro fair treatment and there
will be very little cause for complaint against him.
The cases in which the planters turn the negroes off the
plantation as soon as the crops are gathered are somewhat
numerous. Here is one that comes under my own observation. The planter worked seven men and six women. I
met the men on the street one forenoon, wandering aimlessly about. When I talked with them they told me their
story.  "Ole mass'r had'Agreed to give we one tird de craps,
an' we dun got'em all up,- got de corn shucked, an' de
tatees digged, and de rice trashed; an' ole mass'r he dun
gone sold all de craps, an' he bringed we all up yere yes'erday, an' gif we seven dollar fur de man an' he wife to buy
de cloth wid to make we clofes, an' he say may be he gif we
some shoes; an' he dun gif we'n none o' de craps, none o'
de rice, none o' de corn, none o' de tatees, on'y de seven
dollar fur de man an' he wife; an' den he tell we ter come
on de plantation no mo'; an' he say we all bof mus' make
322 
HOW TO RE-ESTABLISH SLAVERY.
livin' on we'ns freedom; an' we got not'ing fur all de work
on'y de seven dollar fur de man an' he wife, an' we got no
corn nor not'ing for de winter." I have some satisfaction in
knowing that this wretch is ordered to appear before the
provost-marshal at two o'clock to-morrow afternoon.
An intelligent boy of about twenty touched his old cap to
me, and asked the way to head-quarters. I went there with
him and heard his story.  He was a refugee from C'lina,
brought down last spring by his old master, who had since
died. He had been doing job work this season, and had got
fifty dollars laid up. He was a blacksmith, and worked
at his trade.  "A month ago, sah, -next Monday's four
weeks, sah, -I goes to work fur Mr. Bell; an' he promise
to do well by me; an' I make no reg'lar bargain with him,
but jes' work right'long ev'ry day from sun to sun; an' he
say to me yes'day mornin', sah,' Henry, you go up to town
with me an' I reward you well for your work'; an' I dun
cum up in his wagon, an' he drive round town an' say ag'in
he gwine to reward me well; an' when he git ready to go
home, he jes' give me dis yer old pipe an' say he don't want
me no more; an' when I ax'd him where was de reward he
gwine to give me, he cut at me wid de whip an' tell me to
go'bout my business; an' den I comned yere, an' I tell you
de whole story." That old pipe did not seem to the captain
a sufficient compensation for a month's work at blacksmithing, and Mr. Bell was also ordered up for settlement with
Henry, the aforesaid freedman.
In the South Carolina Convention one of the leading upcountry delegates, during the debate on the slavery-prohibition clause of the Constitution, said, substantially, that the
condition, as well as the name, of slavery should be prohibited; and in this view he took exception to the phrase,
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist except as a punishment for crime," &c.; for, he argued, it will
be very easily possible for the Legislature, if so disposed, to
323 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
re-establish the condition of slavery by a system of crimes and
punishments impliedly authorized by that clause.
Down here in Southwestern Georgia is the man who furnishes the practical illustration for this argument. He is
called General John T. Morgan, and he has been making a
speech on the negro question, which the editor of his county
paper indorses as "sensible."   "The grand point in his
speech," says the editor, "was  that in order to wield the
bone and muscle of the negro effectively in the various industrial pursuits of the South, we must put him in competition with white laborers, and we  thought he was very successful in its demonstration." The abstract of his views on
this point is brief, but it is full enough on the main question,
as the following paragraph shows:  "IHe urged that, as-the Constitution gives the power to inflict
involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime, a law should be
so fi-amed as to enable the judicial authorities of the State to sell
into bondage again those negroes who should be found guilty of
certain crimes; and in conclusion said he thought that this, in
connection with the whipping-post and the pillory, would do
more to check vagrancy, theft, robbery, and other crimes among
the negroes than all the penitentiaries which could be built."
I cannot doubt that some simple-minded persons really
apprehend trouble with the blacks about Christmas. I have
talked with hundreds of the negroes since I left Milledgevrille, but am utterly unable to find any feeling among them
that seems to me to threaten a revolt.  On  the contrary,
they appear to believe that their only chance for decent
treatment during the winter lies in the protection which the
presence of the military will give them. If the troops are
all removed they fear just what this General Morgan advocates, -a virtual re-establishment of slavery.
324 
THE GOVERNOR.
X XVI.
THE STATE ELECTIONS.
COLUMBUS, November 17, 1865.
HE general election of this State took place yesterday.
In this city and county it passed off quietly enough,the vote being about one fifth larger than that cast for delegates to the late State Convention.
The election of Judge Charles L. Jenkins, of Augusta, to
the governorship of the State is cause for congratulation.
I had frequent occasion to speak of him during the session
of the late Convention, of which body he was the undisputed
leader. The office to which he is now elected has been
more than once at his disposal; but, though hle served his
county often in former years in the Legislature, he never
had much desire for office, and latterly has given himself to
the duties of his profession and of his position as Judge of
the Supreme Court. Everybody concedes his entire personal and official integrity, and he has always been especially free from the contamination of party or legislative
intrigue. That a man of such universally acknowledged
probity and uprightness of character has been elected to the
high office of Governor of a great State is in itself cause
for congratulation. It must also be added that Judge Jenkins appreciates the present situation much better than the
majority of the people of the State.  He was defeated as a
Union man, in spite of the great repute in which he was
personally held, for the Convention of 1861. His position
on the bench kept him aloof from active affairs during the
war; but though, like almost every one else, he "went witht
the State," it was known by all who cared to inquire his
views, that he never ceased regretting the course of the
325
00 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
South. He was the choice of many of the best men of the
State for Provisional Governor, and was elected to the late
Convention without opposition. His course in that body is
well known. As chairman of the committee of sixteen, he
reported the obnoxious clause of the new Constitution which
sets up the claim for compensation for emancipated slaves,
but one of his friends asserts that he very decidedly opposed
the adoption of that clause in committee.  As chairman of
that committee, he also reported the bill repealinq the ordinance of secession; but I have his own assurance that he
desired to declare it nutll and void. As chairman of that
committee, he also reported the equivocal measure respecting the rights of the freedmen in the courts. How far it
concurred with his own views I am unable to say. He
voted against the repudiation of the war debt; his position
being that the people ought to be left free to do as they
pleased in regard to its payment. A better man for the
office and the crisis might possibly be found, but it is a good
deal to get one into that position of such stamp as he is.
He has been elected without opposition, each of the other
gentlemen mentioned for the office having formally declined
being candidates.
In the Second Congressional District, comprising the
extreme southwestern section of the State, -twenty-two
counties,- there were two candidates for Congress,-  General Phil Cook and Dr. J. E. Blount. General Cook was
originally opposed to secession, but went into the war as
soon as the State went out of the Union, and remained in it
to the end, - receiving some slight wounds. He was one
of the silent members of the late Convention; and is, I
judge, reasonably well disposed toward the government.
Dr. Blount opposed secession, opposed the war, and now
says that " the only hope for the peace, happiness, and prosperity of our people is in the free and cheerful support of
the Union and the President." Of course General Cook is
elected.
326 
THE CONGRESSMEN.
In the Third Congressional District, comprising the fifteen counties of Middle Western Georgia, including that in
which Columbus is situated, there were also two candidates,
- Colonel Hugh Buchanan, of Coweta County, and Judge
Benjamin H. Bigham, of Troup County.
Mr. Bigham has many times been a member of the lower
house of the Legislature, and generally occupied important
positions on the committees of that body. He is now judge
of the Atlanta Circuit.   He  defined  his position in a
lengthy card, of which the substance is in the following
paragraph:
"I opposed the secession of Georgia from the Union; but I
nevertheless regret to see that we have a candidate for Congress
in this district who commends himself by saying he thinks he can
take the test oath, to which he especially refers. Speaking for
my)self, I am not ready to write'traitor' over the graves of the
honored dead. I would not, if I could, thus insult the survivors
of the recent severe conflict of arms. I am fully committed to
the firm and substantial support of the President, reserving to
myself the manly right to discriminate, and to disagree with him
where I may conscientiously think he is wrong. I will not cringe
to power nor sacrifice principle; nor by any act or expression of
mine countenance the proscription of any man for past opinions;
and I speak in all sincerity when I say the fate of our people shall
be my fate."
SIr. Buchanan is a lawyer by profession, who has served
two terms in the upper house of the Legislature. He was
an original Secessionist, and entered the Rebel army in
April, 1861, as a third lieutenant.   He rose through the
intermediate grades to a lieutenant-colonelcy; and at the
battle of Pavillion Station, in June, 1864, was so severely
wounded that it was thought for months he could not recover; and in fact he was not able to return to his command when the Confederate armies surrendered. His card
contains the following precious paragraph:
327 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
"It may not be amiss or improper to state, for the information
of those not acquainted with me, that, at the commencement of
the late war, I volunteered my services, and, through the executive of the State of Georgia, entered into the army of the Confederate States, served in the army of Virginia, and did all in
my power to sustain the cause of the South, and secure the independence of the Confederate States. No law was ever passed by
the Congress of the Confederate States by which I could be required to take up arms during the whole struggle.  I was exempt
by the laws of the Confederate States. I refused to avail myself
of the exemption, and continued in the service to the last. The
cause failed, the Confederacy fell, and our expectations of a separate and distinct nationality passed away. I feel that Ilam not
responsible for that failure in any way. As a citizen, a soldier,
and a man I did all I could to insure success."
You see, it was no question between a Unionist and a
Disunionist, but a mere contest between two Rebels. Of
course the one who went into the army carried the day. His
county organ says of him, that " he will be the peer of any
member from this State in intellect and every virtue that
adorns the human character."
In the Seventh Congressional District, composed of the
fourteen counties in the extreme northwestern corner of the
State, and constituting what is locally known as "Cherokee
Georgia," there were three prominent candidates.
MIr. H. G. Cole, of Atlanta, was the candidate of the original Union men who never gave in their adhesion to the
defunct Confederacy and who never acquiesced in the decision of the Secession Convention.   He was  everywhere
known from the beginning to the end of the war as an outand-out enemy of the Rebellion and a friend of the Union,
and suffered a year's imprisonment at the hands of Howell
Cobb and other malignants of the State on that account.
ilr. James P. Hambleton, the Atlanta editor who got up
the famous "black list" against New  York merchants, in
the fall of 1860, was the candidate of the original Secession
328 
THE CONGRESSMEN.
ists and all the present Rebel malcontents. A single paragra'ph from his card clearly reveals his status and eminent
fitness for a seat in the Congress of the United States:
"From the date of the ordinance of secession to the dark days
of the surrender of the Southern armies I did all and everything
in my power for the establishment of Southern independence and
a separate and distinct nationality. Would to God the cause for
which we all suffered so much had been crowned with success;
but as it was otherwise ordered, I accept the decision of the
sword."
General William T. WVofford, of Cass County, was the
candidate of the men who were not original Secessionists, but
who acquiesced in the action of the Convention of 1861, and
supported the State in her efforts in behalf of the Confederacy. He published no card, but allowed his friends to speak
for him, and a paragraph from their plea will show his
position:  "General AVofford is not an extreme man in any sense.  He is
eminently conservative in all things.  We need men in Congress
in whose honor and integrity we can repose confidence, who will
contend to the last for all we can now ask for in support of the
policy of President Johnson, and who are as little obnoxious as
possible to those in power. The reason for this is plain. We can
expect but little from those we so recently regarded as our enemies, if we send men to them whom they regard with suspicion
and distrust. In General Wofford we have a man in whom all
have confidence, the purity of whose motives no man North or
South can question, upon whose record there is not a blot, and
from whose influence we have more to expect than almost any
man in the South."
The returns from this district will, I am confident, show
the election of Veneral Wofford. He is a lawyer by profession, and a cavalry soldier of the Mexican war. He has
served one term as clerk, and two terms as member, of the
lower house of the Legislature. He strongly opposed Secession in the winter of 1860 - 61, and voted against the pas
329 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
sage of the ordinance of secession in the Convention of
3lay, 1861.  But, as one of the cards in his behalf says,
"The State went out, and as a true Georgian, believing in
the honesty of the people and in the principle that the majority ought to rule, he went with her."  He was made
colonel of the 18th Regiment, was promoted to a brigadiership, and was in command of the district of Northern Georgia at the time of the surrender of the Confederate forces
last spring. From all I can learn respecting him, I judge
that he is not very badly disposed toward the government
and the new order of things.
Without waiting for the returns, I can safely say that the
local elections in nearly all the counties of the western and
southwestern sections resulted in favor of the men who
" went with the State."  I do not hear of the success of a
single candidate who opposed the war or was even lukewarm
in its support, while as between war men the result is generally in favor of the most radical.
In most of these counties wherever an issue was made
during the canvass for delegates in the late Convention, the
election resulted in favor of men who were co-operationists
in 1861 and against those who were original Secessionists.
There was a certain disagreeable work to do in the Convention, and the people seemed to think that quasi Union men
were the proper parties to haul the chestnuts out of the fire.
Now the case is different. The Legislature will be composed
of men of another stamp, - generally of men of more ability, but also of less original Unionism than those in the Convention.
I everywhere encounter more or less of the feeling which
a Cuthbert man expressed in this terse and forcible language: "I hope every district in the State will elect a man
for Congress who can't take that d-d test oath; I want to
see the Yankees try it on; if Georgia is n't a free sovereign State, I think, by G-d, it's time we knew it!" This
3 Ili 0 
NEWNAN.
practical reaffirmation of the dogma of State rights is something of every-day witness to any one travelling here. The
people hold to it just as strongly to-day as they did five
years ago; and the moral of this election is, that the supremacy of the State is above that of the nation.
XXXVII.
3IATTERS IN WESTERN GEORGIA.
NEWNAN, November 20,1865.
S I looked up the streets of Newnan from the windows
and platform of the railway car, it seemed a charming
place,- a gentle slope toward the east, three or four white
stores, the corner of the court-house with its surroundings
of luxuriant China trees, the hotel with its broad and high
piazzas, a wealth of trees and shrubbery everywhere, on all
sides handsome cottage houses embowered in greenness and
rose blossoms, to the right and left numberless oaks with
their crimson and golden frost-touched leaves, and then in
the dim background the dreamy and uncertain outline of
wooded hills with their blue beauty shiminmering in the low
sun of a glorious Indian summer afternoon!
Yet Newnan is just like every other Southern town,streets full of mud-holes and wallowing swine, fences in
every stage of tumble-down ruin, sidewalks in every condition of break-neck disorder,.yards full of sticks and stones
and bits of every conceivable rubbish,- everywhere a grand
carnival of sloth and unthrift and untidiness and slovenliness,
- everywhere that apathy of shiftlessness so pitiful to the
soul of a New-Englander!
'T isn't Nature's fault. She is infinitely more bountiful
331 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAE.
than under our Northern skies. Wild-flowers beautifying
every grove and creek-side, and roses and half a dozen
strange blossoms tempting into every garden, and snow on
our Massachusetts hillsides! One may well say the war
did not produce its full and proper fruitage if the year 1870
does not show this fair South-land redeemed from the careless mistreatment of all these long years,- this Southern
people educated to a love of order and cleanliness, and an
appreciation of thrift, industry, and the royal dignity of labor!
Newnan is the county seat of Coweta County, and has a
population of about twenty-seven hundred. It is on the
line of railroad from Atlanta to Montgomery,- forty miles
below Atlanta, thirty miles from the western line of Georgia,
and rather above the midde of the State north and south.
It is the home of very many rich planters, boasts numerous
handsome suburban residences, is said to have a more elegant
and cultured society than any other place in the western part
of the State, prides itself on its early and constant devotion
to the cause of secession, and has just elected radical Secessionists and unconquered Rebels to the Legislature.
"If your party carries the day in the forthcoming elections
in the North," said a Convention delegate to me at Milledgeville, three weeks ago, "I shall think it perfectly useless for
us to send congressmen to Washington." These Georgians
thought the President had gone over to the Democratic party,
and one man assured me that he wished the success of their
nominees in New York and New Jersey!
Surprised as most of them are at the result, not one man
in fifty seems to have any true conception of the real significance of the late elections in the North. The merchant of'
Columbus who said in the public parlor of the hotel one
evening so loudly that half a dozen persons heard him, "I'm
in favor of having our men go to Congress and take their
seats any way, whether the d-d Yankees are willing or
not," only put in strong phrase an idea I have heard half a
332 
THE TEST OATH.
dozen times ill more cautious language. If there are fifty
good Union men in all the towns where  I have stopped
within two weeks they live so quietly that neither observation nor inquiry can find them; and the great mass of the
people characterize the result of the recent political campaign in the North as sectional.
Through this part of the State the moral standing of the
citizen seems to be measured by his war record. The chief
requirement in respect to any man is that he shall "go with
the State." The supremacy of the Constitution of the United
States is formally acknowledged, but the common conversation of all classes asserts the supremacy of the State. The
Calhoun doctrine is pushed to its last conclusion.   There is
not merely a broad assertion of the rights of the States, but
an open enunciation of the supremacy of the State over the
general government,- an enlarged reaffirmation of the doctrine declared in simply repealing the ordinance of secession.
A gentleman whom I met in the eastern part of the State
said to me: "If there had been three bold and true leaders
in the winter of 1860-61, we could have saved the State
from secession, in my judgment; but Benj. Hill forsook us,
and then Alex. Stephens forsook us, and we had only Josh.
Hill left, and the State swung into Rebellion."
Benjamin H. HIill lives at LaGrange, some twenty miles
below here. He has long been one of the leading men of
the State.  He acquiesced in secession, but did not go into
the army, I believe. Pending the recent election, he was
asked his opinion as to the duty of the people in the present
emergency, particularly with reference to the expediency of
electing gentlemen to Congress who cannot take the test oath.
The following letter is his answer:  "The oath is unconstitutional, because it adds to and varies
from the oath required by the Constitution. This is settled by
several adjudications.
"The oath is unwise, unnatural, and unprecedented, because it
333 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
is retroactive in its requirements. It does not seek to procure
proper conduct in the officer while discharging the duties of his
office; but does seek to exclude him from the office altogether by
reason of something done or not done long before the office was
conferred.
"If Congress can prescribe one test it can prescribe another
test; and thus, by legislation, destroy the right of representation.
"I would vote for no man to represent Georgia who could take
this oath, because it is the highest evidence of infidelity to the sentimiients of the people of the State.
" I would vote for no man, anywhere, who would take this oath,
because it is the highest evidence of his infidelity to the Constitution. The man who takes that oath admits a power in Congress
to destroy every department of the government as well as every
right of representation.
"I am a candidate for no office, and will seek none and desire
none. The man who wishes now to be a representative in Congress firom the South either does not comprehend the very unpleasant and very heavy duties of that position, or has made up
his mind to hold the position without discharging the duties. In
either case he is not fit to be trusted.
"There is no danger now from any spirit of resistance in Geor
gia. The only danger comes from an opposite direction, - servility. I intend to be loyal myself, and I have not been faithless to
any obligation I ever assumed, even when unwillingly assumed. I
resisted secession until resistance was hopeless, and then I resisted
subjugation until resistance was hopeless. I would not, if I could,
change my record.
"But I will help no man to represent Georgia whose fidelity to
the State is doubted, or whose ability and willingness to maintain
and vindicate the honor of her people, living and dead, is suspicious. I will vote for no man to administer the Constitution who,
in the very beginning of his work, would take'an oath which admits a power in Congress to subvert that Constitution.
"Each house of Congress is sole judge as to whether persons
seeking seats have the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution, and have been elected and returned according to the laws.
THE PEOPLE are the sole judges of every other qualification. Otherwise, Congress can nullify or even destroy the right of election
334 
THE POOR WHITES.
secured to the people alone, and thus make a congressional despotism.
"The right of the States to representation in Congress is the
clearest of all rights under the Constitution. It is the right without which no other right can exist and no obligation can be imposed.  I have an abiding faith that the President will not permit
its destruction by test oaths or otherwise. He was for the Union
against the South; and it is my opinion that he will show himself
for the Union against 3ilassac7husetts when the issue comies."
I have only to add that the italics of this remarkable let ter are Mr. Hill's. I believe it expresses the feeling of four
fifths of the men and of all the women of Georgia. If it is
not a formal declaration of war against the nationality of the
government I am unable to comprehend the force of its very
plain and explicit language; and if it does not indicate an
insolence and dictatorial spirit without precedent I have read
history to little purpose.
Let Congress dispense with the test oath, and give us
back the good old times! Let it admit all these Rebel
generals and colonels and politicians, and so restore universal harmony! Let us all join hands and cover the
nakedness of the land, and assure the world that it is not
scarred with a million graves, and that there has been no
war for lofty principles and the natural rights of man, but
only a friendly contest of strength and endurance, in which
the victors concede everything to the vanquished on the sole
condition that the latter pronounce the former magnanimous!
Whether the North Carolina "dirt-eater," or the South
Carolina "sand-hiller," or the Georgia "cracker," is lowest
in the scale of human existence would be difficult to say.
The ordinary plantation negro seemed to me, when I first
saw himn in any numbers, at the very bottom of not only
probabilities, but also possibilities, so far as they affect human relations; but these specimens of the white race must
335 
TIE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
be credited with having reached a yet lower depth of squalid
and beastly wretchedness. However poor or ignorant or
unclean or improvident he may be, I never yet found a
negro who had not at least a vague desire for a better condition, an undefined longing for something called freedom, a
shrewd instinct of self-preservation.   These three ideas
or, let me say, shadows of ideas - do not make the creature
a man, but they lift him out of the bounds of brutedom.
The Georgia " cracker," as I have seen him since leaving
AIilledgeville, seems to me to lack not only all that the
negro does, but also even the desire fQr a better condition
and the vague longing for an enlargement of his liberties
and his rights.  Such filthy poverty, such foul ignorance,
such idiotic imbecility, such bestial instincts, such grovelling desires,    no trick of words can make plain the scene
in and around one of these "cracker" habitations, no fertility of language can embody the simple facts for a Northern mind, and the case is one in which even seeing itself is
scarcely believing.   Time and effort will lead the negro up
to intelligent manhood; but I almost doubt if they will be
able to lead this "white trash" even up to respectability.
Ex-Governor Herschel V. Johnson closed the late Convention with a brief speech. It brought tears to the eyes
of many delegates, was ordered to be spread upon the
journal, and has been very generally printed in the newspapers of the State.  During my journeyings since the adjournment of the Convention, I have often been referred to
it as an epitome of Georgia feeling and judgment.   It is
scarcely less noticeable for what it contains than for what it
does not contain; but I note now only a single paragraph
in which he speaks of the freedmen. It is as follows: -
"W AVe are now to enter upon the experiment whether the class
of people to which we are in future to look as our laboring class
can be organized into efficient and trustworthy laborers. That
may be done - or I hope it may be done - if we are left to our
336 
THE FREEDMEN.
selves. If we cannot succeed, others need not attempt it; and I
trust that in the future we will have the poor privilege of being
let alone in reference to this class of our people."
I bear you sorrowful witness that there spoke the true
Georgian. He is sublimely ignorant of the fact that the
negro is also a child of the Republic; sublimely ignorant of
the other fact, that the war has restored to him certain human
rights.  He only sees so many machines, the mission of
which it is to do his work; and he asks you to let him alone
in their management. He begs of you to give him this "poor
privilege," and gravely tells you that they cannot be made to
work at all if this be denied him!
I also bear you sorrowful witness that every Georgian
despises the negro. As a slave he was well enough; but as
a man he is only a poor, pitiful creature, from whom little or
no good can be expected. Secessionists and Unionists are
just alike, so far as I can see, in contempt for him, and alike
in wanting him out of the way.
"I hope you will remain in the State long enough," said a
very intelligent gentleman of Northern Georgia to me, nearly
a month ago,-" I hope you will remain in the State long
enough to see what a miserable thing the negro is, the poor
creature who brought on the war and is bound to be exterminated before it ends; for it won't end till they or we are
gone." There also spoke the true Georgian, a kindly man,
a sober judge, and a professed Unionist.
From the average Georgia stand-point, he is half insane
who talks of educating the negro.   "What, build schoolhouses for the niggers!" exclaimed a citizen to a Cincinnati
gentleman with whom I sat in the public room at the AIacon
hotel. "Well, when we do, I'11 ljust let you know." Some of
the leading men see and say that the interests of the State
will be promoted by educating the freedmen; but nine tenths
of the people sneer just as the Macon man did. Yet within
four blocks of that same hotel I saw the negro porter of a store
v
337
1 5 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
laboring at his spelling-book in the corner, when no customers were in; and a young negro woman with her spellingbook fastened to the fence, that she might study while at
work over the wash-tub. Still I'm everywhere told that
the nigger can't learn, and money spent in educating him
would be money thrown away!
Georgia is the richest and most enlightened of the Gulf
States.  It asks Northern capital, but it holds out no inducemenit for the development of the mental and moral capital
dormant in its negroes and poor whites. For which of these
classes there is the best chance in the coming years it is
hard to say. There certainly can be no more wretched
human beings than the "crackers."   The adults of this
class can have no hope for this life, and the children will
grow to the estate of their parents unless the spirit of caste
is broken down and common schools are built up.   The
universal prophecy that the negro will not work is undermining his humanity and forcing him to its partial fulfilment.
The universal contempt in which he is held is driving him
into hatred of his contemners and such vagabondage as leads
by swift steps to the grave.
XXXVIII.
MATTERS IN NORTHWESTERN GEORGIA.
ATLANTA, November 23, 1865.
TLANTA is built on something less than a hundred
hills; and, excepting Boston, is the most irregularly
laid out city I ever saw.  In fact, the greater portion of it
seems never to have been laid out at all till Sherman's army
came in here. That did the work pretty thoroughly,- so
thoroughly, indeed, as to prove remarkably destructive ability in hlis men.
31-0) 8 
ATLANTA.
Coming here has dispelled two illusions under which I
rested: first, that Atlanta was a small place; and second,
that it was wholly destroyed.  It was a city of about four teen thousand inhabitants two years ago, and it was not
more than half burned last fall. The entire business portion, excepting the ilasonie Hall building and one block of
six stores and a hotel, was laid in ruins, and not a few of the
larger residences in all parts of the city were also burned.
But the City Hall and the 31edical College, and all the
churches, and many of the handsomer and more stylish private dwellings, and nearly all the houses of the middling
and poorer classes, were spared; and on the first of last
June there was ample shelter here for at least six or eight
thousand persons. Of course, however, when the entire business portion of the place had disappeared, the city had been
practically put out of the way for the time being, even if
nothing be said of the fact that it was depopulated by military orders.
The marks of the conflict are everywhere strikingly apparent. The ruin is not so massive and impressive as that
of Columbia and Charleston; but as far as it extends it is
more complete and of less value. The city always had a
mushroom character, and the fire-king must have laughed in
glee when it was given over into his keeping.  There is yet
abundant evidence of his energy, - not so much in crumbling walls and solitary chimneys, as in thousands of masses
of brick and mortar, thousands of pieces of charred timber,
thousands of half-burned boards, thousands of scraps of tin
roofing, thousands of car and engine bolts and bars, thousands of ruined articles of hardware, thousands upon thousands of tons of debris of all sorts and shapes.  Moreover,
there are plenty of cannon-balls and long shot lying about
the streets, with not a few shell-struck houses in some sections; and from the court-house square can be seen a dozen
or more forts, and many a hillside from which the timber
339 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
was cut so that the enemy might not come upon the city
unawares.
From all this ruin and devastation a new city is springing up with marvellous rapidity.  The narrow and irregular
and numerous streets are alive from morning till night with
drays and carts and hand-barrows and wagons,- with hauling teams and shouting men,- with loads of lumber and
loads of brick and loads of sand, -with piles of furniture
and hundreds of packed boxes, -with mortar-makers and
hod-carriers,- with carpenters and masons, - with rubbish
removers and house-builders,- with a never-ending throng
of pushing and crowding and scrambling and eager and
excited and enterprising men, all bent on building and trading, and swift fortune-making.
Chicago in her busiest days could scarcely show such a
sight as clamors for observation here. Every horse and
mule and wagon is in active use. The four railroads centring here groan with the freight and passenger traffic, and
yet are unable to meet the demand of the nervous and palpitating city.  Men rush about the streets with little regard
for comfort or pleasure, and yet find the days all too short
and too few for the work in hand. The sound of the saw
and plane and hammer rings out from daylight till dark, and
yet master-builders are worried with offered contracts which
they cannot take. Rents are so high that they would seem
fabulous on Lake Street, and yet there is the most urgent
cry for store-room and office-room. Four thousand mechanics are at work, and yet five thousand more could get immediate employment if brick and lumber were to be had at any
price. There are already over two hundred stores, so
called, and yet every day brings some trader who is restless and fretful till he secures a place in which to display
another stock of goods.
Where all this eagerness and excitement will end no one
seems to care to inquire. The one sole idea first in every
340 
ATLANTA.
man's mind is to make money. That this apparent prosperity is real no outsider can believe. That business is
planted on sure foundations no merchant pretends.   That
there will come a pause and then a crash, h few prudent
men prophesy.
Meantime Atlanta is doing more than Macon and Augusta combined.   The railroad fiom here to Chattanooga
clears over one hundred thousand dollars per month, and
could add fifty thousand more to that enormous sum if it
had plenty of engines and rolling stock. The trade of the
city is already thirty per cent greater than it was before the
war, and it is limited only by the accommodations afforded,
and has even now spread its wings far out on streets heretofore sacred to the privacy of home.
Wonderful as is the new growth of the city, its original
existence is still more wonderful. It is two hundred and
fifty miles from the sea-coast, in the midst of a country but
moderately productive, not in the vicinity of any navigable
river, and without facilities of any kind for manufacturing
purposes; yet it was founded less than twenty years ago, is
now the fourth place in population in the State, and bids
fair to be the second in less than five years.
It can never be a handsome city, but its surrounding hills
and slopes offer beautiful sites for elegant residences. Many
of the buildings now going up are of frail and fire-tempting
character, but in several instances owners  are putting in
solid one or two-story brick blocks, - intending at some
future time to add two or three stories more. Few of the
present merchants were here before the war, -few of them
are yet to be considered as permanent residents of the city.
The streets never were either neat or tasty; now, what
with the piles of building material and the greater piles of
debris and rubbish, and the vast amount of teaming and
hauling over them, they are simply horrible. The former
residents are coming home, and in the private portions, as
841 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
well as the business section, there is great activity of repair
and refurnishing.  The place has no decent hotel, - no one
has yet found time to build a large house. Of small and
wretched fifth-rate hotels there are half a dozen; but better
than any of these are several of the very numerous socalled private boarding-houses, which send their porters
and runners to every train, receive all classes of transient
guests, charge the usual four dollars per day, and are hotels
in everything but name. The city handsomely supports two
of the largest daily newspapers in the State, has five or six
churches, a medical college, two or three select schools, and
is talking about an academy.
These northwestern counties were all strongly opposed to
secession in 1860 - 61, and this Congressional district furnished several hundred soldiers to our armies. Its disposition toward the government is now, as a whole, probably
better than that of any other district in the State.  Its
slaves constituted less than one fourth of its aggregate population before the war, and in general there is much less
complaint here than elsewhere as to the disposition of the
freedman. The people pretty generally quietly accept the
decision of the sword, and the men who prate of State
supremacy are far less inl number than in the district
below.
The social condition of affairs is deplorable in the extreme. It results mainly from the bitter feud between the
two classes of people, - those who " went with the State,"
and those who remained true to the Union.  While the
country was under the control of Johnston and Ihood, the
Union men suffered almost every conceivable wrong and
outrage.  Their families were turned out of doors, their
wives were abused and insulted, their daughters were maltreated and ruined, their farms were pillaged and desolated,
their houses were sacked and burned, and they themselves
were  imprisoned and tortured; nay, many of them  were
342 
CHERPOKEE GEORGIA.
hunted down like wild beasts, and shot like dogs when at
the point of death by starvation. That the Union men
now seek to strike a balance for the indignities and barbarities of other days is only most natural. Whence a constant
turmoil in all sections, which results in the sudden death of
not a few persons and the arrest and imprisonment of large
numbers.  The leading delegate of this section went-so far
as to say, in the late State Convention, that three fifths of the
men in all Cherokee Georgia are now under indictment.  I
hope this is an exaggeration; but my own observations convince me that the truth is at least so bad as to present a
picture of civil commotion only less painful than the commotion of war itself.
The people of this section are generally hardy and industrious, and in many respects are so much unlike those of
some other sections of the State, that "Cherokee Georgia"
is a term of contempt and reproach with the aristocrats and
land monopolists of the southern and southeastern parts. I
found the delegates from this quarter lacking in something
of the polish of those from the cities, but no class of men in
the late Convention showed a wider range of general information. I find the common people no more ignorant than
elsewhere in the State, and it is certainly to be said in their
favor that they are not sitting in sullen indifference nor
idling in helpless poverty.  Poor they are, having little left
but lean bodies and homespun garments; but I judge that
the whites of these twenty counties in the northwest have
done more work since the close of the war than the whites
of any fifty counties below the middle line of the State.
I am very certain that the President's course in granting
pardons so freely to leading Rebels in this State has not
strengthened the faith nor upheld the hands nor encouraged
the hearts of these mountain men who were always our
friends. They should receive such favors as government has
to give; but I am everywhere told that the golden apples
343 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
are cast into the laps of men not yet cleansed of love for the
Rebellion, while the original Unionists, who kept the faith
unto the end, are generally cuffed and sent away emptyhanded. As I have already said, hundreds of these men
suffered every possible outrage at the hands of the Rebels.
You need n't undertake to tell them who is to blame for
their treatment, for they know that Joe Brown and Howell
Cobb could have prevented it by a word.
Scores of women, whose husbands were abused or imprisoned, went to Brown or Cobb for protection or relief,
only to be insulted or coldly turned away. Now when these
men and women see Joe Brown put forward and accepted
as Presidential adviser for this State, and see Howell Cobb
restored to all his rights of person and property, is it any
wonder that they manifest little love for the government,nay, any wonder that some of these men swear roundly, and
exclaim, "D-n your government, if it has no favors for
anybody but black-hearted Rebels!" When I talked with
one of them, he cut me short with, "Treason a crime?  D-n
it, loyalty's the only crime, I think!"
XXXIX.
M1ATTERS IN CENTRAL GEORGIA.
GIEENSBORO, November 25, 1865.
INALLY I have found what I began to fear I should
not see in this Southern trip, -evidence that it is possible for at least some persons in this section of the country
to know and appreciate order and beauty and taste and
neatness and home-like comfort.
Greensboro is the only place of thirty or forty in which
344 
GREENSBORO.
I have stopped that may challenge comparison with North ern towns on the score of general appearance. It is the
shire town of Greene County, has a population of six teen hundred to two thousand persons, and is often men tioned in the State as the place where Mr. Secretary Seward
once taught school.  It is situated on the Georgia Railroad,
al)out midway between Atlanta and Augusta, in the heart
of a high, rolling, productive country, in which there are
many good farms under fair cultivation. It formerly had a
cotton factory, which is now used as barracks for the one
hundred and fifty soldiers stationed here; a handsome brick
college in grounds luxuriant with vines and flowers and
evergreens, in which an academy is now kept; and two or
three small hotels, which are now all closed. It has half a
dozen substantial brick stores, and is doing a moderate trade
with the well-peopled surrounding country. Its court-house
is the best I have anywhere seen in the State; and two of
its half-dozen churches are buildings both tasteful and costly.
Its beautiful yards and gardens are not so numerous as in
some other towns I have visited, but there is everywhere a
noticeable absence of that glaring showiness so common in
the South.   In general, the little town has a very Northern
appearance, - looking not indeed so much like a New
England town as like a quiet county seat of Northern New
Jersey or Central New York.
Finally, I have also found what I began to fear I should
not see in this Southern trip, - evidence that it is possible for at least some Southern women to know and appreciate the dignity of domestic life, and to comprehend
the subtile mysteries of thrifty and orderly and cleanly
housekeeping.
The house of this widow lady, in which I am domiciled
for a       da y  or two, is the one house of all in which I have
stopped that may challenge comparison with the house of
an     y  N ew En gland dame under the sun.  It is a small cor                15 
345 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
ner-lot house, set round with vines and evergreens and chinatrees, and having the usual cookl-house and servants' quarters
in the rear. Every one of its four rooms below and its three
chambers above is as neat and tastefully and appropriately
furnished as any house I ever saw in Massachusetts. There
is a place for everything, and everything is in its place.
The room assigned to me is without carpet, but its bare floor
is as clean as water and soap and scrubbing-brushes can
make it; its furnishing is old and quaint, but every way
proper and in order; its bed will bear the most careful inspection, from the snowy counterpane to the solid cotton
mattress; and in one corner is an old-fashioned reel, - evidence of how much well-ordered household economy! I
confess that I am charmed and delighted, - for how much
sloth and apathy and filth and shiftlessness and slovenliness
has vexed and saddened my New England soul for twelve
long weeks!
Nor is the comfort and good order of the household due
wholly to the servants, either.  There appear to be a couple
of them, and they well do their work, but the head of the
house is the widow lady herself; and she and the married
daughter living with her superintend household affairs to
their minutest detail; and I am sure that if the servants
were to leave to-morrow, the home would neither fall in
pieces nor go into bankruptcy. The table is well supplied,
and the manner in which it is served demonstrates what my
general experience in the South contradicts, - the capacity
of a negro woman to be a good cook. Need I say, after all
this, that the ladies of the house are ladies in the good sense
of the word? It is a private boarding-house, at which chance
travellers are always at liberty to ask for accommodations,
and I expect to pay the usual four dollars per day; but the
boarders are appa,ently at home, and I am treated like the
guest of the family.  The mistress of the house owned a few
slasves, and is not very hopeful regarding free negro labor;
346 
A FAMILY IN CENTRAL GEORGIA.
but in that respect she does not differ from every other native resident of the State, and I am very sure no one can
be kinder to this black man working out his great destiny
than she was to her slaves.
Does all this matter seem merely personal or unimportant? It is neither. The son and son-in-law of the house
were both soldiers, and both suffered long imprisonment at
our hands.  They are now good citizens, who live by honest work. If any member of the household has any bitterness of feeling because of the war, I have failed to find it,
after a good deal of conversation on all branches of the subject. They mourn the loss of property, but they accept that
as part of their defeat. They wish the soldiers were out of
the way; but peaceable citizens of no town like the presence
of the military.   They have some prejudices against the
Yankees, but they are not offensively apparent, even to one
who avows himself a Yankee of the Yankees. It is not a
small matter that there is even one town in the whole of
this great State that may court measurement by a Northern
standard; for herein is the promise of many more such
towns to be built up, when the land is purged of the spirit
of slavery. It is not a small matter that one traveller has
found a pleasant stopping-place;  for in that fact is proof
enough how little slavery cared either for the comforts or
the economies of home, and proof also of the future homes
that shall rise here under the new heavens. It is neither
merely personal nor unimportant that twelve weeks of travel
in three of the late slave States should find but one village
and one household that would lose nothing in comparison
with fifty villages and some hundreds of households in MIassachusetts alone.   Give this people Freedom and all her
handmaids, and the traveller of a dozen years hence will
not need to draw such pictures as I have drawn of Southern
shiftlessness and slovenliness.
Visiting many of the wretched towns of this State and
347 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the Carolinas, and seeing how all the inhabitants live, one
can scarcely wonder that the negroes sought early opportunity to break away from their old homes, and begin life on
their own account.  If they said, "Anything will be better
than this," they exaggerated very little. The new life might
bring them poverty and trouble, but it at least gave them
freedom, and the poverty was no strange thing.
In such towns as Greensboro, and proportionately in
others as they approximate toward it, one cannot help seeing most vivdily the other side of the question involved in
their course.   That freedom should bring desire for change
was most natural, as all human experience testifies. Yet,
seeing what that change has worked in many of the best
towns of Central Georgia, one cannot help wishing the poor
negro could have been content, for a time, in his old situation. His removal has reduced hundreds of these Southern
women to even such necessary work as will support life, and
thousands more to a certain amount of manual labor. Let
no one regret this.
If there is one thing more needed in the whole South,
in the three States, I mean, which have come under my observation, - more needed here than loyalty, it is respect for
labor as labor; not merely respect for it as a means of sustaining life, but respect for it as a branch of Divine economy, respect for it as a means of human elevation.  And if
there is one thing more needful than to teach the men of'the
South that labor is noble, it is to teach the women of the
South that labor is not degrading. Therefore, as one who
would see the problem of man's capacity wrought out in this
country to most beautiful results, I welcome the necessity
which the course of the negro has forced upon so many women here.  Let them work,- let them begin as children,
and learn to do housework.
It is pitiful that, in this age and in this country, one should
find occasion to say what is thus impliedly said; but we shall
348 
THE FREEDAIMEN'S SITUATION.
not see the full fruit of the war till labor is dignified in every
town and village of the whole South; and if the negro must
ignorantly many times sacrifice his own ease and comfort
now for the good of this people, as they have heretofore sacrificed his freedom and his life for their pleasure, there will
only be given another proof that "God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
Yet that the negro should thus ignorantly sacrifice his ease
and comfort is none the less touching. That he does do this
is apparent to any one who looks upon the situation with unprejudiced eye. He does it everywhere in individual cases,
however hard that fact may be of acceptance to any of our
theorists; but in all Central Georgia he does it on a wholesale
scale. lie is a human being, and it was not easy to believe
that he would do what all my experience had proved huifan
beings would not do except in isolated cases; yet that thousands of negroes in this section, where slavery was less a
burden than in almost any other part of the South, that thousands of negroes have left homes wherein they had every
needful care and comfort, for the uncertain chances of life by
themselves, is a fact that I cannot refuse to see. In Greensboro, in Madison, in Sparta, in MIilledgeville, in Macon,
in Athens, in Washington, -go where you will in Central
Georgia, and you cannot fail to come to this conclusion. It
is neither supposition nor speculation; it is a hard, unpalpabie fact.
In the Carolinas and in other parts of this State I found a
few negroes who had clearly let go the bird in hand without
any prospect of finding even one in the bush; here I find
thousands of such. I know very well that every white man,
woman, and child in the whole State is ready to swear that
every negro is worse off now than before he was freed. I
accept no such evidence; but hundreds of conversations with
negroes of every class in at least a dozen towns of this section have convinced me that the race is, on a large scale,
349
-7 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
ignorantly sacrificing its own material good for the husks of
vagabonda,e.
In South-Carolina, as I have already said, where slavery
reached its lowest estate, it was not easily possible for the
negro to make his condition worse by striking out for himself.. There was scarcely more than a choice between two
evils, and he chose that which promised him most independence. Hereabouts his situation was different, and he has too
often made the bad choice.
This must also be borne. For if the privileges of freedom
are given to the negro, must he not also take its duties and
responsibilities? If his exercise of the privilege of choice
leads him into want and suffering, will you again enslave him
with the requirement that he shall live with the old master
or mistress who treated him well? You may advise him to
such course, but you cannot compel him thereto. If you
would secure his freedom to him, you must let him have his
own way in this regard, even if you see that it will bring him
to the utmost misery. 
I went into the outskirts of Macon and hunted up many
of the negroes who had left old homes in the city and surrounding country.   I did the same thing at Madison and
:Mil]edgeville. Hundreds and hundreds of them will feel the
pangs of cold and hunger this winter who might have kept
every necessity and many of the comforts of life, if they had
chosen to remain with those who formerly held them as
slaves.  Who shall have the heart to blame them?  For
they were in search of nothing less noble and glorious than
freedom. They were in rags and wretchedness, but the unquenchable longing of the soul for liberty was being satisfied.
Pity them I did, but blame them I could not; advise them I
did, but scold them I could not.
Over by the half-built Confederate arsenal in Macon I
found a little hut in which were eleven negroes, -an old
man, a middle-aged man, three women and six children.
350 
THE FREEDMIEN'S SITUATION.
There was beside in the hut only a couple of bundles of old
rags, which answered, I suppose, for beds, three or four rude
stools, a single chair, a bag of meal, four or five pounds of
bacon, and half a dozen cooking utensils.
"Well, Uncle," said I, after he had told me that he was
raised near Knoxville, some thirty miles away,-" well,
Uncle, what did you come uip to the city for?  Why did n't
you stay on the old place? Did n't you have a kind master?"
"I's had a berry good master, mass'r," lie said, "but ye
see I's wanted to be free man."
"But you were just as free there as you are here."
"P'r'aps I is, but I's make a livin' up yer, I dun reckon;
an' I likes ter be free man whar I's can go an' cum, an' nobody says not'ing."
"But you would have been more comfortable on the old
place: you would have had plenty to eat and plenty of clothes
to wear."
"Ye see, mass'r, de good Lo'd he know what's de best
t'ing fur de brack, well as fur de w'ite; an' He say ter we
dat we should cum up yer, an' I don't reckon He let we
starve."
I had some further talk with the family, but could only
get for answer to my many times varied question, that they
came to the city to get freedom.
Near MIilledgeville I found another of these crowded cabins, in which lived a man and his wife and seven children,
the eldest of whom could not have been over twelve or thirteen years of age. He was an intelligent fellow, and there
was a certain air of spruceness about his cabin rather uncommon. I had much talk with him. He came up from Fort
Valley country, he said, an' he reckoned he could get somethling to do after a bit.'T was rather hard times, he knew,
an' good many black people was comin' to de city, but he
reckoned they'd all git through the winter some way.
351 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
But don't you think," said I, "that it would have been
better for a great many of them to remain on the plantations
or with their old masters and mistresses in town?"
"Wa'l now ye see, sal, das a Scriptur' what says if de
man hab a little to eat, an' he eat with a'tented mind, he be
better off dan de man what hab de fat ox an' is n't'tented."
There seemed no further occasion to argue the case with
this man at least. Elsewhere in the same neighborhood I
talked with other negroes.  AMany of them had left comfortable homes, but all seemed to think they could get along
somehow through the winter.  It was a warmish day, and
many of the women were sitting on the ground on the sunny
side of their huts, engaged, as so many negro women everywhere are, in knitting socks or stockings.
This morning I walked out to the little negro village near
Greensboro, where are living many blacks who were houseservants in the town, as well as some who have come in
from the country. Their average condition is better than
that of those in the neighborhood of large cities, but yet it is
impossible but that many of them must either suffer or steal
before spring. I am convinced that many of those who were
servants in town had pleasant homes, and did not want for
any of the simple comforts of life.
"Well, Auntie," said I to one of them, a weather-beaten
old creature, who looked as though she had seen at least
sixty years, but was as vigorous about her small housework
as a girl of twenty,  " well, Auntie, how do you get along
in your freedom?"
"' No reason to make complaint, sai.  I has sum soin' and
some washin', and'pears like I had nuf ter do."
"But you are getting to be an old woman, and your old
mistress would have given you a good home as long as you
live.  Would n't it have been better to stay with her?"
" Well now, honey, ye don't see only one side'pears like.
I be an ole woman as ye say, but I's mighty peart yet, and
352 
AUGUSTA.
I don't reckon I'll want'fur nothing dis yer winter; and
when de wa'm season cum agin, mebbe I go back to town ter
live."
"What  did you leave the old place for, Auntie, any
way? 
"What fur?'Joy my freedom!"
The directness and exultation of this answer half puzzled
and half disconcerted me. I knew how this old woman had
lived,- knew what a favorite she had been in the family in
which she had formerly been owned,- knew what large
liberty had been always given her in everything. What is
the "freedom" that war has brought this dusky race?
XL.
MATTERS IN EASTERN GEORGIA.
AUGUSTA, Novemnber 28, 1865.
UGUSTA is a fine point for business; and when it is
once more brought in connection with Charleston and
Savannah by railroad, Atlanta, busy as she is now, and confident as she is of the future, will need to have sharper eyes
and even yet more restless energy if she would not be distanced.
The close of the war found more cotton, probably, stored
in and about this city than at any other point in the South.
One feels justified, from all that is said,.in estimating the
amount at fully fifty thousand bales; and many dealers put
the figure at sixty thousand, while a few even fix it as high
as sixty-five thousand. Very little of this was burned, and
most of it was in the hands of private parties. Consequently, there has been a large business here in the article all the
fall, in which there is not yet very much abatement.
w
353 
T IIF SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
In this Congressional District, the Fifth, the contest at
the recent election was more animated than in any other district in the State,-and one of the worst Rebels in the district carries the day.
Colonel James D. Matthews, of Oglethorpe County, is a
lawyer by profession, and was a colonel in the Rebel army.
Hle is the most uncompromising malcontent in the congressional delegation from this State,  was by all odds  the
noisiest and bitterest Rebel in the late Convention, and is
about as badly disposed toward the government and the new
order of things as any man I have met in all my tour. lHe
is of very cold, hard, severe, inflexible cast of countenance,
has a taunting and aggressive manners and speaks in a
high, falsetto, sarcastic, impassioned tone of voice.  His appearance, his manner, and his voice alike attest his individuality.  He made many speeches during the Convention, and
each of them was galling and venomous. He was the most
audacious of those who demanded pardon for Jeff Davis, the
most haughty of those who advocated the dogma of State
sovereignty, the most galling of those who  sneered at the
supremacy of the nation, the most insolent of those who denounced the government for requiring a repudiation of the
Rebel war debt, the most domineering of those who fought
everything looking toward a recognition of the legal rights
of the negro, the most stubborn of those who resisted the
effort to establish co-operative action between the people and
the Freedmen's Bureau.
The moral of this election is so plain that he who runs
may read. And, the city of Augusta, which would have
General Steedman believe she is loyal, cast three fourths of
her vote for this malignant Matthews!
In the stage between here and Milledgeville I rode a
month ago with two gentlemen of considerable local weight
and prominence, who were both anti-Secessionists in 1860- 61.
They talked of the approaching Convention, and of its prob
354 
THE ANDREW JOHNSON PARTY.
able action in redistricting the State for representatives.
"Well, Colonel," said the younger, himself a man of over
forty years,   " well, Colonel, what will be our proper
course when  we  are  once  more  fully restored  to  the
Union?" The answer came, after a moment's consideration, "We must strike hands with the Democratic party
of the North, and manage them as we always have."  There
was a pause while we rattled down the hill, and then the
questioner responded, "That's just it; they were ready
enough to give us control if we gave them the offices; and
I reckon they've not changed very much yet." There was
then conversation on other matters; but half an hQur later,
after a mile or so of silence, the Colonel suddenly resumed,
"Yes, sir, our duty is plain; we shlall be without weight
now that slavery's gone, unless we do join hands with them.
Andy Johnson will want a re-election, and the united Democratic party must take him up; it shall be a fair division,we want the power and they want the spoils."
"I hate the Yankees with my whole heart," said a genteely dressed woman who sat just behind me in the cars the
other day coming to the city.  "And I hate them so bad
that I'm going off to Texas to live," answered the gentleman with whom she talked.
At Atlanta I saw a family of seven persons, from the
county above this, on their way to that region; at Greensboro I saw a family of thirteen, including the old folks, with
daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, and having a wagonload of trunks, bound for that State; at Berzelia, twenty
miles west of here, I fell in with a man who had just returned from an inspection tour, and would start for there
next week at the head of a company of twenty. I asked
him if he did n't like it in this State. To which he answered,
"I am going to see if I can't get shet of the Yankees."   A
man whom I sat opposite at breakfast this morning told his
neighbor that a common acquaintance from Athens left last
. 355 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
week, and he knew of another family near Waslington who
would go in a few days. I have heard of very few persons
who fall in with the Alabama scheme  for emigrating to
Brazil; but I am convinced that in the Central and Eastern
sections of Georgia there are many who purpose moving to
Texas, and only in one or two instances have I heard any
reason assigned but a desire to get away from the Yankees.
Yet not all the people of this section are of such antagonistic spirit, -not all of them are so at war with common
sense and the conquerinfl  Yankee.
"I don't believe I'11 ever vote again in my life," said a
young man from Athens to me; "the first vote and the only
vote I ever cast was for the revolution candidates from our
county to the Convention of 1861.   I left college and went
into service two days after Sumter was fired on, and I stayed
in the army to the bitter end.  I've got enough of war, and
if there is ever another in this country I shall emigrate."
"I'm d-n glad the war's over, any how," said a Madison
gentleman to me.  He was dressed like a gentleman and
mostly spoke like one, but profanity is much more common
down here than in the North.  "I did all I could for the
revolution, and now I'm going to do all I can for the Union.
You must n't ask me to give up my idea of State rights,that's in my bones, and never can be got out; but I assure
you it shall never give any more trouble, so far as I am
concerned."
When Federal soldiers died in the South, while held as
prisoners, they were very rarely given burial in the cemeteries of the town or city in which they died, but were generally packed away outside the walls, if, indeed, their bodies
were not ignominiously buried in by-places. Here, however,
the bodies of such men were all given decent burial in the
large and beautiful city cemetery, - a fact which must be
infinitely grateful to the friends and relatives of the two
hundred boys who finished their warfare in this city. They
356 
A GEORGIA UNIONIST.
lie in three long rows in the southeastern corner of the
cemeteryv, and can readily be identified by a reference to the
sexton's books.  When the first ones were laid there, now
two years ago, some of the extra-finished Rebels of the city
were very much offended, and complained of the sexton for
his action in the matter, saying that it was an insult to bury
Yankees there.   With gratitude and admiration I set down
the answer of the sexton:  "If you ever get to heaven,
you'11 find plenty of Yankees there; and't wont hurt anybody to lie alongside a Yankee in here, I reckon."
Down on the river-bank yesterday afternoon I had some
talk with a middle-aged gentleman, who said he had always
been a Union man. He kept out of the war, but only at the
expense of all his property.  He thought there were not
over one hundred men in this whole county who could be
trusted as Union men; he was very certain the President
ought not to pardon Howell Cobb, and reckoned it would
have been a good thing if General Wilson had strung him
up the first time he got eyes on him; he wanted South
Carolina blotted out of existence as a State, and allowed it
would suit every Union man in the South if she was turned
over to the niggers; he could never vote for a man who was
a Secessionist, and had n't voted at the recent congressional
election; he was glad the President had paroled Alexander
Stephens, though he wanted a man to be one thing or t'other,
not half Union and half Secesh, and he hoped C. C. Clay
would soon be paroled; as for Jeff Davis, he did n't know,
though he reckoned the old fellow might as well be set loose
on t' other side the ocean; and, finally, he thought we should
have more peace in the country if each side, the North and
the South, just hung about a thousand parsons!
The people of this city and vicinity are unusually exercised about the pardon of Jeff Davis. There are two classes.
A young man, representative of one class, who had been a
major in the Rebel service, said to me last evening, "I be
357 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
lieve President Davis and General Lee the two greatest men
of the present generation, and I feel like fighting every time
I think how Mr. Davis is kept shut up in Fortress Monroe,
and every time I hear the great and good Lee maligned by
the Yankees." An elderly gentleman who lives a few miles
below the city, and who was a delegate in the late Convention, said the other day, in a stage wherein I also was a passenger,' Mr. Davis ought to be hung, but not by the Yankees; he was the MAarplot of our cause, and he ought to be
hung, not for treason, but for his cursed mismanagement ill
the Presidential office of the Confederacy. We should have
succeeded but for his obstinacy; and his favoritism toward
every man we distrusted and every man who proved himself incompetent, did us more harm than Yankee guns ever
did."  This gentleman represents the second class, which is
just as anxious for Mr. Davis's pardon as is the first named.
I have heard much talk about his pardon in all sections, but
in none more than this; and I learn that some of the ladies
of this city, stimulated by the recent example of their sistersympathizers in Baltimore, are canvassing the expediency
of getting up a monster petition of the women of Georgia
in his behalf.
I saw Alexander H. Stephens to-day, - a little old man
with most marvellous eyes, looking not so much like a human being as like a character from one of Dickens's stories.
Yet if Georgians reverence anybody it is Mr. Stephens; and
there is n't the least question but that his presence in the
State is beneficial in the best sense.  He resists all importunities to make a public speech; but I am told that he
converses freely with all who call upon him, and that he
urges everybody to accept the issue of the war in the most
cheerful and liberal spirit. While in Columbus, two weeks
ago, I was told of a letter he wrote to a friend in that city
immediately after the famous Hampton Roads conference.
I tried in every way to get a sight of it, but without success.
30'8 
THE LABOR QUESTION.
The gentleman who told me of it had read it, and used these
words in respect thereto: "He said that peace could be ob tained oit terriis not humiliating to the South, and that it ought
to be made at once, but Dfr. J)avis and his principal advisers
did not want peace."
I hear much talk about Wirz during the last three or four
days, because the last of the illustrated papers chronicles
his execution, I suppose. Winder is generally considered
the chief brute, but WVirz is held to have been a willing tool.
Of course the people don't readily own that the Andersonville cruelties were practised in their State, and occasionally
I find a man who seeks to justify them. The great majority
of the people, however, condemn them; and I am constantly
assured that such models of Christian manhood as Howell
Cobb and Robert Toombs did all they could to improve the
condition of the prisoners.  Most persons claim that there
was much perjured testimony given at the trial, but many
admit that General Wilson would have been justified in
hanging Wirz as soon as he caught him.  On the whole,
-though one young man said to me, " He was a bully fellow
and died game," - I believe there is a general sense of relief
at Wirz's execution.  "There's one wretch the less left to
remind us of the terrible war," earnestly said a very intelligent Macon gentleman.
I have talked with many of the planters of this section.
Most of them complain of the negroes; and General Tillson, State Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, says
he is satisfied that the blacks are not generally doing more
than about half the work they might, though he considers
this quite a good proportion when all the facts of the situation are taken into account. Many of the planters, however, are making arrangements to introduce white labor.   I
have, within the last four days, heard of no less than nine
leading men, in their respective localities, who either have
already made contracts for white labor or are soon going
359 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
North to secure it.  One of these planters left here yesterday for New York, to arrange for sixty men for himself
alone, and for thirty more for some of his neighbors.  He
will get Germans if possible, and does not doubt but that
they can readily be taught to make cotton with proficiency.
"The only way in which we can control the labor of the
free negro is to bring him in competition with the white
laborer," is the language of scores of men.
WAYNESBORO, November 29, 1865.
"There are two places in the State," said an acquaintance
to me at Augusta, "where they'd as soon shoot a man as a
dog, -Albany  and  Waynesboro.  I've been  in Albany
nine times in the course of three or four years, and have
seen a big, row every time I was there.  Waynesboro  is
just as bad, only it is n't so large a place. They manage to
shoot half a dozen men a year there, though, without much
trouble." It was a hint to walk very circumspectly, and,
remembering Albany, I am giving it due heed.
Waynesboro is n't a lovely place, by any means.   In
fact, I don't see why anybody should desire to live here;
and a forced residence of half a year might very well make
a man long to be shot.  Happily, though the town is the
county seat of Burke, but few persons do live here, - five
hundred, perhaps.   From  Greensboro  to Waynesboro  is
about one hundred miles, but those miles space the distance from civilization to barbarism. Not to be unjust to
Waynesboro, let me say that it has a hotel, and a church,
and two or three stores, and a good many dram-shops, and
at least a hundred residences.
The town is the present terminus of the railroad from
Augusta to Savannah, and therefore every traveller must pay
it at least small tribute. It is thirty miles below Augusta,
and stages run from here to make connection with the
Savannah end of the railroad. About sixty miles of the
360 
FEELING TOWARD THE YANKEES.
line was destroyed by Sherman's army, and that sixty miles
of staging was probably the worst in the whole South. For  tunately,-for I must make the trip to-night andl to-morrow,
- fifteen miles of the gap have been filled, and there are
now but forty-five miles to make in these terrible old aml)u  lance coaches. That will take ten hours at least, beginning
at eleven P. I.  The ride of six or seven hours in the chill
November night, over a new and wretched road, through
the low and marshy piny woods, will be very pleasant for those who like it!
MIost of the counties in this section elected original Seces sionists to the Convention, and have not changed their
course of action in respect to the Legislature. Some of the
men sent to the Convention were such notorious Rebels that
the story was started immediately on their election that they
would be arrested. Of course it had no other foundation
than mere rumor. Yet, if I am not wrongly informed in
regard to several of those elected to the lower house, almost
the last place in which they should be is in a body called
to legislate so as to restore the State's relations to the
Union.
I scarcely need add that there is hereabouts a strong
surface hatred of the Yankees.   Officers on duty tell me
some very curious stories illustrative of this fact.  I am
assured by one whose veracity no man can question, that
in an adjoining county there is a public league of young
women who have vowed not to speak to a Federal soldier
under any circumstances whatever. Insolent treatment of
soldiers and officers on the street is so common that it
excites little or no remark. One of the drivers of the stageline tells me that only three days ago a man refused to ride
in his coach because an officer of the army had a seat therein.  It is confidently reported that in one neighboring county
young ladies have been seen within a fortnight wearing little
secession flags in their hlats; but I am slow to believe this
16
361 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
story, though it circulates on what appears to be good authority. WVhile my acquaintance with some of the better
class of citizens furnishes no cause for the assertion that
there is unusual hostility to the government or to people
from the Northl, the every-day language of the lower classes
is clear proof of the existence of what I have designated as
surface hatred.
As a curious specimen of what one hears, take the following little speech made by an apparently intelligent man
to a group of half a dozen persons, of whom I was one:  "I've sent an advertisement to the paper for a job of overseeing some plantations next year. I reckon I could do that right
lively. 0, I tell you, I can do up some tall cussin' when I get
started. Can't lick free niggers, but I don't know if there's any
law ag'in cussin''em, and I believe it does'em a heap o' good.
It's next best to liekin'.  Jest cuss one o''em right smart for
'bout five minutes, and he'll play off peart. Probably the Yankees don't like that style, but I ha'n't no use for a Yankee no
how. I had a lot of likely negroes, but they're all gone; had
Confederate money, but that's all gone; and I've got a heap o'
Confederate bonds, but they a'n't worth a damn. I reckon God
Alinighty fought on the other side in this war. Hie used to smile
on us, but He hasn't given us anything but frowns lately.  I
don't care a damn, but I don't like to see my fiiends all so cut
up about it. I can git along well enough. I should like to lick
a hundred free negroes jest once all'round. If I didn't bring
'em to know their places, I'd pay ten dollars apiece for all I
failed on.  But the Yankees give us our orders, -we mus n't
lick the freedmen, they say. Free-damn-cusses I call'em. I
reckon't a'n't ag'in no law to swa'r at'em, and damn me if I can't
do that ar. Yes, sir, God Almighty was ag'in us, but I'low
'twon't be wrong to cuss the free niggers. Yes, sir, God Al mighty was ag'in us.... Waal, I ha'n't no use for a Yankee, -
they're low-down, triflin' fellows, any how, and I reckon I shall
have to play a lone hand and git'long the best I can by myself."
The State-rights doctrine flourishes here much more vigor ously than in the northern part of the State.  "I don't vote
'C-)2 
WHAT THE WAR SETTLED.
for no man as long as I live, who did n't go with the State
in the revolution," said one man to me. I should scarcely
exaggerate, if I said that the test of a man's moral worth is
his position on this question. State allegiance is made a
sine qua noni, apparently, by everybody.  "I ha'n't got no
use for a man who went ag'in the State, though," said one
-who had been telling me at some length how hle opposed secession.  "We shall have to knuckle down a little more, I
reckon," remarked one gentleman to another, in the hotel at
Augusta, "but I shall be a Calhoun man as long as I live."
No one argues the point, as some do in South Carolina. It
seems to be the common average sentiment that only a secondary allegiance is due to the general government.
I asked one of the delegates to the late Convention what
the war had settled, and his answer was, "Well, it settled
that the North was the strongest, and that the negroes are
free."
"But did it settle nothing in regard to State rights?" I
continued.
"It settled that you are able to enforce your belief on that
question, but I don't believe it has changed the opinion of a
single Southern man," said he; and after a moment he added, "but I've no idea we shall ever go to war on that point;
we down here have had war enough, and you may hold your
opinion just as I hold mine."
The planters hereabouts are not generally hopeful in regard to the availability of free negro labor. I had some
conversation with a knot of them, in which the question of
white labor came up.
"We shall have to have control of the free nigroes, or
import white men to do the work," said one of them.
I asked if the negroes would n't work if they were treated
exactly as white men would be in the same circumstances.
"No, a free nigroe is a free nigroe, any how."
"But," said I, "that way of talking and feeling cannot be
363 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
beneficial either to him or to your interests. Why not use
him fairly, like a man?"
"The trouble is jest here," said another, "he don't knorr
his place. If you let us alone, we'11 teach him, and then I
reckon we'11ll git along with him better."
"But what do you mean by teaching him his place?" I
asked.
A third man took up the question, and answered: "Our
people are restive at what they call outside interference.
The negro is n't to blame for his freedom. He served us faithfully all through the war, and I sincerely believe very few
planters have any desire to see him injured. We know his
ways; and if you give us time, I think we shall be able to
get him back into his place again,- not as a slave, but as a
good producer."
They kept up a conversation among themselves, till the
first again responded, "A free nigroe is a poor cuss, any
how."
To which a fourth one answered, "I'11 tell you how't is:
a free nigger's jest like any low-down white fellow, - pull
off your coat and work with him, and he does well enough;
put it on and go off to town, and he shirks." Numbers
one and two seemed a little puzzled at this, and he continued:  "Now I don't have a d-n bit of trouble with my
fellows when I work right'long with'em."
"But your people don't generally go into the field and
work, as our Northern farmers do," said I.
"That's just it," said the third; and the fourth concluded, "Yes, that's just it; we've had too many d-n fine
notions, and one of our new notions is, that we must have
white labor; I go in for white labor, - yes, I do; and I'm
agoin' to put some on my plantation. I'm goin' to work
myself!"
364 
TRAVELLING IN GEORGIA.
XLI.
MATTERS IN SOUTHEASTERN GEORGIA.
SAVANNAH, December 2, 1865.
THIE  destruction of railroads in this State was as com     plete as in South Carolina, but the energy of the people
in repairing damages is much greater, and, therefore, communication between the different sections ever reached by
the cars is much more readily made here than there.
I have travelled over most of the stage lines in the State;
and while I can't say that either the vehicles or the animals
are respectably good, I can fairly own that neither are quite
so bad as those in Carolina. I must decline, however, to
recommend any of the lines to the patronage of the travelling
public, though I will add that the use of either will furnish
many new sensations to travellers from civilized countries.
In many towns there are no hotels, chance travellers finding accommodations at so-called private boarding-houses.
The almost invariable charge, whether at these houses or at
regular hotels, is four dollars per day, - three and a half
being the rate in only two of the many towns I have visited.
In the large cities, and in one or two of the large towns, I
have found the table reasonably well supplied, that is,
from a Southern stand-point; but elsewhere the standard is
hardly up even to that of the Carolinas.
Western Georgia and Northern Georgia I found full of
"runners" from Louisville and Cincinnati.  They represented all branches of trade, and pretty generally reported
that they were getting many orders. In this section I find
more representatives of Eastern houses. I believe the delivery of goods already ordered will give a stock in the State
sufficient for the coming year. Everybody seems to have a
3(;5 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
passion for keeping store, and hundreds of men are going
into trade who should go into agriculture. If the coming
season brings a "smash" in many towns, the prophecies of
numerous business men will not be unfulfilled.
Business in the city has been very brisk all the fall, and
many a merchant has had all he could do who moaned last
spring for the "good old days." One of them said to me
yesterday, "There's been more done in the last six months
than I believed last winter would be done in two years." I
have found no other place in the South where early faith in
the recuperative energies of the people has met with such
larg,e reward as here. MIany men seem inclined to believe
that the promise will not be kept, and are prophesying a dull
season next year. Others are more hopeful, and say that
when the railroads connecting with Augusta, IMacon, and
Thomasville are repaired, the trade of the city will be fifty
per cent greater than ever. This latter view seems to me
the correct one; but it can hardly be appreciated by any one
who is uninformed as to the numbers of Northern, and particularly Northwestern men moving into the upper and western sections of the State.
There are already many Northern men in business here,
and I am told of many more who propose coming out during
the winter.  A  considerable portion of these are men who
were in the army, and not a few of them are ex-soldiers who
did more or less duty in the city, and of course come here
now with some social and business relations already formed.
The feeling toward persons from the North is very far from
being what is desirable, but several who have been here
through the year say it is improving.
In the First Congressional District, Solomon Cohen, of
this city, has been elected representative.   He  is, as his
name indicates, of Hebrew descent, though a native of this
country, I believe.  He is a lawyer by profession, and stands
a,mong, the leading members of the bar in his section.  He
366 
FINDING TREASURES.
was a delegate in the famous Charleston Democratic Convention, and was one of the few Southern men who refused
to secede from that body. He was Buchanan's postmaster
here, and an opponent of secession. State allegiance carried
him into the post-office under the Rebel government, however, and he gave a son to the army thereof, who was killed
shortly after going into service. Hle was a delegate in the
late Convention, and was prominent in the action to secure
an assumption of the Rebel war debt.
I record with pleasure that I have found two men who are
eminently sound on the State-rights question. One of them
has been a Rebel sergeant, and is now a railroad fireman.
He stood by while three or four of us were carelessly chatting about the subject. "Dun know anything'bout the matter myself, but old Uncle Sam says as how States ha'n't any
right to kick out o' the traces, and that's enough for me."
The other one of my couple is a planter, and he put this
word into the conversation of a couple of his neighbors who
were hair-splitting about reserved  rights, &c.: "Well, I
reckon it's one of the reserved rights of the Federal government to put down a rebellion, and I don't happen to know
any man down to my section who proposes to dispute that
right agen."
I also record with pleasure that I have found one man who
is eminently sound on the negro labor question. He keeps
a hotel,-  the most systematic and orderly house, with one
exception, that I have found in the South. He has no help
but that of negroes. I asked'him how he got along so admirably with them, when so many persons complained that
nothing could be done with them. "Why, I treat'em just
as I would white men; pay them fair wages every Saturday
night, give'em good beds and a good table, and make'em
toe the mark. They know me, and I don't have the least
trouble with'em."
There is much want and suffering among the residents of
367 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Southeastern Georgia. I judge they did not very readily
accept the situation last spring.   However  that may be,
there is no question about two facts, - they were despoiled
of nearly all their property by the Rebel army, and have
made but insignificant crops of all kinds during the present
season. I am told that there are at least two thousand respectable white persons in and around Savannah alone who
must live mainly on charity through the winter. I know,
too, from conversation with many of the Convention delegates from this section, that there are numbers of such persons in nearly all the twenty-five or thirty nearest counties.
Of course this general destitution affects the negroes even
more seriously than the whites. I shall not exaggerate if I
say that hundreds of them have already died in and about
Savannah of actual starvation. What the combined effect
of increased scarcity of food and increased severity of weather
will be in the course of the next three months is easily conjectured. The military authorities and the officers of the
Freedmen's Bureau have done, and will continue to do, all
that is possible to relieve this widely-spread suffering; but
they work at a double disadvantage,- the prejudice of the
whites and the ignorance of the blacks hindering their labors.
The negroes are badly treated in some of the counties
west and northwest of the city. I fell in, on yesterday, with
a gentleran who has been making a horseback tour in six
or eight of them, in search of cotton. He says hundreds of
negroes have been turned off the plantations during the
month, with little or no money, and but a few bushels of
corn, and that many of them will be actually forced into
thieving to support life. He saw one negro woman horsewhipped very severely for some offence, and saw a negro
man who had been shot in the arm for declining, at first, to
be turned off the plantation where he had worked all summer. He also tells me that some of the members elect of
368 
A GEORGIAN ON RECONSTRUCTION.
the Legislature are pledged to resist all efforts to give the
negro the right to sue or be heard as evidence in the courts.
I heard one man tell another, as I sat in the car while
coming down firom Augusta, that his father had just turned
over forty negroes off his plantation, "with corn enough for
a month or so." A South Carolina lady, a refugee in this
State, told me of a case in the county adjoining this, on the
north: she knew a planter who had turned all the old peo l)le off his place, and among them was a very aged woman,
without children, who died in less than a week from want.
I hardly need add that the freedmen throughout this sec tion are somewhat disinclined to make contracts for another
season.  The rice plantation negroes are very slow to com prehend the fact that freedom does not mean idleness,
being the most degraded specimens of the race I have any wiere found.  They generally seem without conscience in
respect to the sin of theft, and almost infinite patience will
be required to bring them out into an intelligent apprecia tion of their rights and responsibilities.  One large planter
tells me that he has offered twelve dollars per month for the
season, without being able to get all the labor he wants.
This case, however, I believe to be exceptional.
I have fallen in with a gentleman of middle age who was
in the Rebel army about three years.  He  is a lawyer by
profession, and is among the leading members of the bar in
lis section. He has been in the Legislature, and before the
iwar was one of the most popular speakers in his district.
Tle is a man of such ability that he was often invited to
speak with Howell Cobb, Ben Hill, Lucius J. Gartrell, and
other leading politicians. He claims to have been always a
Union man, and says his service in the army was compulsory.  He is now, at least, acting the part of a quiet, welldisposed citizen; and his advice is found of value by the officer in command in his city.  I speak thus particularly, because I do not deem it advisable to give eithber his name or
369
16*
x 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
his residence.   On a certain Sunday morning we two fell
into some talk on the condition of the State and the prospects of the future.  I found him, after a time, quite ready
to speak, and he found me  equally ready to listen.  And
this, almost word for word, is what he said:  "I think you are mistaken, sir.  Giving suffrage to tlhe negro
would not accomplish the ends you desire to reach, I'in afraid.
Perhaps I'm prejudiced against him, but I doubt if suffrage would
secure his freedom to him, for I know too well how he can be
wound round the finger of a plausible white man. You've been
about the State considerable, I reckon, but let me tell you just
how I see things; and remember, I'm a native Georgian, and
expect to live and die in my State.
"The negro's first want is, not the ballot, but a chance to live,
-yes, sir, a chaice to live.  You say the government has given
him freedom, and that many good men in the North believe he
must have the ballot to secure that freedom. I tell you hlie's not
got his freedom yet, and is n't likely to get it right away.  Why,
he can't even live without the consent of the white man! He has
no land; he can make no crops except the white man gives hinm
a chance. He has n't any timber; he can't get a stick of wood
without leave fri-om a white man. We crowd him into the fewest
possible employments, and then he can scarcely get work anywhere but in the rice-fields and cotton plantations of a white man
who has owned him and given up slavery only at the point of the
bayonet. Even in this city he can't get a pail of water from a
well without asking a whiite man for the privilege. He can
hardly breathe, and he certainly can't live in a house, unless a
white man gives his consent.  What sort of freedom is that?
"lie has freedom in name, but not in fact. In many respects
he is worse off than he was before you made him free, for then
the property interest of his master protected him, and now hb.,
master's hand as well as the hand of everybody else is against
him.  True, he has the military here for his protection; but there
are a thousand things done here every day under the colonel's
very nose that he don't know anything about, and that he can't
know anything about, - things hlie could n't remedy if he did
Lnow abouit'em.  Then, besides, there are hundreds of wrongs
370
At, 
A GEOPRGIAN ON RECONSTRUCTION.
of which he knows, that lhe can't reach and can't make right.
'T is n't such whippings as he told you about that most wrong the
negro; it's the small, endless, mean little injustice of every day
that's going to kill him off.  He's only partially protected now;
take the troops away, and his chance would n't be as good as a
piece of light-wvood in a house on fire.
"Yes, I k low there's talk of selling them into slavery again,
but I don'; see how you got hold of it.  I know a good many of
these m,n they've sent to the Legislature; and I know there'11
be private talk this session, even if there is n't open effort, to
,-Ke the penal code take him back into the condition of slavery.
it'11 be called' involuntary servitude for the punishment of crimne,'
but it won't differ much from slavery.  Why, I know men right
here in this very town who believe in making the breaking of a
contract a crime for which the nigger may be sold.  They can do
it. They can establish any system of crimes and punishments
they please.  I don't say they will do that, but I know many men
who would vote for doing it. You Northern men can't see much
of the real feeling here. Get the troops away and the State into
Congress, and I give you my solemn word that I believe three
fourths of the counties in the State wouldvote for such a penal
code as would practically reduce half the negroes to slavery in
less than a year.
"No, I have n't much faith in the idea that capital and labor
will reconcile themselves. Things are exceptional here. Our
capital is all in the hands of a few, and invested in great plantatious.  Our labor is all in the hands of a race supremely ignorant,
and against whom we all have a strong prejudice. In my opinion,
you can't reconcile these two interests unless you put the labor in
subjection to the capital, that is, unless you give the white man
control of the negro. Of course that can't again be allowed, and
therefore there's an almost impassable gulf between the negro and
freedom unless the government aids him.
" I'11 tell you what I think you should have done. The policy
of confiscation should be rigidly carried out at once. Mercy to
the individual is deathl to the State; and in pardoning all the
leading men, the President is killing the free State he might have
built here.  The landed aristocracy have always been the curse
of the State,- I say that as a man born and reared in Georgia
371 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
and bound to her by every possible tie. Till that is broken down
there can be no real freedom here for either the negro or the poor
white. The result of the war gave you a chance you never will
get again to overthrow that monopoly. The negroes and the poor
whites are bitter enemies in many respects, but they agree in
wanting land.  You should have carried out your confiscation
policy,- divided up the great plantations into fifty-acre lots, and
sold them to the highest and best bidders.  That  vould have
thrown some of the land into other large plantations, bu" it would
have been fair, and would have given the poor whites and the
negroes a chance. Give a man a piece of land, let him has-e
cabin of his own upon his own lot, and then you make him fre,
Civil rights are good for nothing, the ballot is good for nothing,
till you make some men of every class landholders. You must
give the negroes and the poor whites a chance to live, - that's
the first thing you should do. The negro has a great notion to
get a piece of land, and you should help him along by that notion.
What does he want of a vote? He would n't know how to use
it, and't would n't bring him anything to eat or wear if he had
a dozen. Give him land, and then you touch his case exactly.
He can get none now.  There is n't one planter in a thousand
who would sell him any; but if you'd carried out your confiscation policy he could have bought it like anybody else.
"I said in a speech on last Fourth of July that we had always
boasted of our country as the land of the free and the home of
the oppressed, while in fact it had been the land of the oppressed
and the home of the slave. I said, too, that I hoped the war had
made it possible for men to be free without regard to color, so
that we might boast more truly than England that our flag floats
over no slave. I spoke very cautiously, but what little I said was
cnough to kill me politically in this county. I have sometimes
thought I would go North and urge your people to take the first
fruits of the victory, but I should not dare to come back here
after speaking up there. I've wanted to write a letter to some
leading newspaper; but if I should say what I honestly believe, I
should be killed if it ever got out that I wrote it. There is n't
any fieedom of speech here, or anywhere in the State, unless you
speak just as the Secessionists please to let you. I should be shot
before to-morrow morning if I were to publicly say what I've said
o 1'2 
RECONSTRUCTION.
to you.  Take the troops away, and off tile great lines of travel
there would be a reign of terror in a month. Your test oath is a
bad thing. It sets an ugly precedent, and it will keep our best
men out of Congress. I wish you could have reached your ends
in some other way. But you've got it, and you'll have to enforce
it. It will punish many who are not guilty, but it will accomplish final results which I want brought about as much as you
do."
I have not met many men in this State who are more
...;petent to speak upon the condition of the people than
-s captain. His remarks do not apply to this section alone.
It seems to me that they are a powerful argument out of the
mouth of a Southern advocate of the opposite policy, that
the ballot in the hand of every man, white and black, is the
only method of securing the rights of the humbler classes of
all colors in the South. It will give them the power and eloquence of numbers.  It will give them what party leaders will
covet, and what the bitterest slave oligarchist in the whole
list will not be above stooping to secure. To be sure, some
should be owners of land; but the citizen, with the ballot in
his hand, is a king in his own right, to whom all things are
possible.  Ownership of land in fee-simple does not necessarily include command of the ballot; but put into the negro's horny palm the simple right to vote, and he is at once
installed into ownership of houses and lands and comforts
and luxuries, from which only his own idleness or improvidence can dispossess him.
373 
THIE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
XLII.
SUMMARY OF FIVE WEEKS' OBSERVATIONS IN GEORGIA.
SAVANNAH, December 4, 1865.
KIND Providence has cast our lot in the midst of a
land unparalleled in the richness of its soil and resources, and unsurpassed in the material elements necessary
for a great, happy, powerful, and prosperous State," said
ex-Governor Herschel V. Johnson, in the brief address with
which he closed the session of the late State Convention.
There was something of State pride in the words, and yet
they are true in a very large sense. Moreover, their truth
can scarcely be recognized by any one more forcibly than by
the ttaveller fresh from the dreary wilderness of the Carolinas.
Very much of Georgia reminds one of Central New York.
Not that there are pretty villages and prosperous towns, nor
that there are churches and school-houses and multiplied
evidences of thrift and industry and intelligence; but that
Nature has been very kind in her gifts of soil and surface,
setting rich acres into a beautiful and comfortable diversity
of hill and valley, upland and lowland, open country and
thrifty timber. The extreme southern section is much like
the Carolinas in its general features, -sand and swamp,
piny woods and piny barrens; but even there the soil is
richer and more easily worked than in the country farther
up the coast. Elsewhere, however, with local exceptions,
the State is much more inviting than any part of the Carolinas to the man from the North or the West.  Given perfect freedom of speech and a hearty acquiescence in the new
order of things, and even the New England farmer could
easily find a home within Georgia.
37,1
0l 
LABOR IN GEORGIA.
I note, also, that for one Northern man coming into the
Carolinas to live there are at least twenty coming into this
State. They come mainly from the States of Ohio, Indiana,
and Illinois, though I have met men from New York, Connecticut, 3Iichigan, and Wisconsin.  The greater proportion
of all these are men who were soldiers; and among those
yet in service I found not a few who declare their intention
of coming back here before winter is over if they are mustered out prior to Christmas.
Atlanta seems to be the centre from which this new life
radiates; it is the great Exchange, where you shall find
everybody if you only wait and watch.   I saw it with wonder, and think of it with ever-increasing wonder. The very
genius of the West, holding in the one hand all its energies
and in the other all its extravagances, is there; not sitting
in the supreme ease of settled pause, but standing in the
nervous tension of expectant movement.   What  is thus
affirmed of Atlanta is to a less extent true of twenty other
places in that quarter of the State. That these new men
will make good settlers who shall doubt?
I believe the contempt for labor and the laborer is at least
quite as strong in Georgia as even in South Carolina. In
the office of head-quarters at Americus I met an ex-colonel,
a man of forty-five years, who had a plantation and worked
thirty-four negroes.   I asked him how he and his neighbors
were getting on with the fall work.  "I know nothing about
the work, sir," said he with a lofty air, in which there was a
fine sneer.   At BIacon I found a man who mourned for the
State because her "gentlemen" had all been ruined, and she
must hereafter be the home of "greasy workingmen."
It has not been held degrading to "' be in trade," and accordingly hundreds of men are opening little stores in localities where those already existent find but precarious support.   Since the war it has not been held degrading to
superintend a plantation, and accordingly many men are
O' 7 5 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
looking for easy supernumerary places among the planters.
But woe to the upper-class white man who proposes to come
down from his proud idleness and put his own hand into
farm work! And  woe to him  of that class who talks of
learning a trade!  " What, work with niggers and Yankees!"
The people, as a class, are much  more intelligent than
those of the other Southern States I have visited, though an
exception in this regard must be made respecting the residents of several counties in the lower section.  The State
once had a good system of common schools, and, though it
could not be made to live, it was productive of mnuch-benefit
for a timne. There is also noticeable here a certain degree
and quality of energy that I did not find to the northeast.
It does not manifest itself in varied industries so much as in
the victory over despondency consequent upon the downfall
of the Confederacy.   Give the people a right mind upon
the question of the dignity of labor, and you shall see here
what Governor Johnson covets,- "a great, happy, powerful, and prosperous State."
I also find here, in a certain proportion, what gives the
North its superiority, -  a middle  class of people.   The
Georgia aristocrat is not always, as in Carolina, a great
landholder; but his aristocracy takes even a more lordly
tone than that of the other State.  The poor white, the
"cracker," is certainly as low in the scale of human existence as anything can be in this country.  Between these
two far-apart extremes is a great class whose presence assures the future of the State. Altogether too many of its
members despise manual labor and covet a professional life;
but time will bring them good sense, and with that will
come the new era in which Georgia nay rightly call herself
the "Empire State of the South."
The prevailing vice of the whole people seems to be whiskey drinking.  I have seen three times as much here in a
376 
THE REBEL DEBT.
month as I saw in the Carolinas in two months. That the
native, on starting out for a ride in the cars or stage, should
take a bottle of "' Bourbon" or " old rye" or "sod-corn" or
some other similar liquid, is a deal more in keeping than that
he should take a lunch or a clean shirt. Not to drink is to
separate yourself from the mass and frequently bring upon
yourself personal criticism of an unpleasant sort.
There is scarcity of food everywhere; in many whole
counties the merest necessaries of life are all any family have
or can afford, while among the poorer classes there is great
lack of even these. Of course this poverty falls most hardly
on the negroes.  The Freedmen's Bureau reports something
less than two thousand pauper blacks in the State; but I know
it will find ten thousand as soon as the cold weather comes,
if it has agencies in most of the counties. But the suffering
will -not by any means be confined to the blacks. Hundreds
of the "cracker" families will have a hard fight t6 keep the
lean wolf of starvation from the doors of their wretched cabins; and not a few of those who before the war never knew
any want, will now know that sharpest of all wants, - the
want of food.
The people accept the repudiation of the Rebel war debt
quite cheerfully, considering the doleful prophecies of the
gentlemen of the late Convention. So many of the delegates
there so earnestly assured me that their constituents were so
exceedingly anxious to pay that eighteen millions of dollars,
tliat I was half led into believing that the President had imposed a hard condition upon the Georgians. HIaply, I doubted
and did n't waste much sympathy, for I find that it was all a
grand game of speculation.  Men who had bought the bonds
at ten to twenty cents on the dollar were anxious the State
should be held to the payment of their face value, but,
strange as it may seem, I have n't found a single man, except those thus pecuniarily interested, who finds fault because
of the repudiation!
377 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The feeling toward Northern men is very far from being
liberal or kindly. MIany of them are, as I have already said,
coming in here; they are tolerated, but, generally speaking,
not welcomed. Having once fought to overcome resistance
to the government, they must fight again to overcome prejudice against the spirit of the nation. There are many counties in the State in which Northern labor and capital would
not be safe but for the presence of the military. I know
that this is a broad and serious assertion. I make it with
full consciousness of its meaning.
The worst feature of the political situation is that the secondary character of the authority of the general government
is everywhere virtually asserted. " Our defeat was the necessary result of superiority of numbers and resources," says
ex-Governor Johnson gravely, without any recognition of the
fact that he and they had warred against the supreme law of
the land. The one thing I have had to report from all sections,
as well as the lesson taught in the earlier elections and now
thunderingly echoed in the later elections, is that the general
sentiment asserts that every man's fealty is first due to the
State.  Not to have "gone with the State" in her late struggle is now to be scorned and contemnned.
That a State has the right to secede is a doctrine not so
generally held in Georgia as I supposed. Of course it follows from the doctrine of State supremacy, but the common
people have not pushed this latter dogma to its conclusion.
The average and common talk designates the late war as
"the revolution," this being a phrase I did not more than
once or twice hear during my trip in South Carolina, and a
phrase very little used even in North Carolina.
The Georgians like to contrast themselves with the SouthCarolinians.  "They are all miserable cusses," said a gentleman to me at Augusta when I talked with him about the
people on the opposite side of the river. "The chief danger
now is that we shall show too much servility," says Ben ill
3 l8 
EVIDENCES OF LOYALTY.
in his everywhere-lauded card respecting the test oath.  "I
reckon your folks found us standing up for our rights better
than they did in C'lina," queried a man of me at Columbus.
"It's all very well to require certain things of South Caro lina, but the President makes a mistake when he undertakes
to dictate to us," observed a Macon gentleman to me. And,
"Tell your people not to suppose we are of the same blood as
they are," responded his companion.
The idea broached by one of the speakers in the late Convention-that a subsequent. Convention could undo its work
- seems to have many supporters in the State. How far
any of these would like to have that work undone is more
than I can say. I only know there are plenty of men who
argue that it is not of binding effect because done under duress.  The Convention was called in violation of the Constitution, they say, and did its work at the point of the bayonet.
It is not the voice of a free people, and may be repudiated as
soon as we are in the Union again.
The aggregate vote of the State in the recent election was
greater for members of Congress than for Governor.  "I said
I never would vote again in the United States," remarked a
man to me at Fort Valley, "and I'm not ready yet to do so."
This person represents a small class of the voters. Another
class is represented by the Atlanta man whom I heard say,
"I will not vote again till I can do so without knuckling to
the d-d Yankeet."  A  larger class than either of these is
represented by the young fellow in the Macon and MIilledgeville cars who loudly exclaimed, "No, by G-d, I never'11
vote for a man who did n't go with the State in the revolutioin!"  The votes of that class were not cast for Governor
Jenkins, but were all given for some of the congressional
candidates.
The citizens of the State are excessively anxious to be
let alone with regard to the freedman. Ex-Governor Johnson spoke the average sentiment of the people, when hlie said,
379 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
" If we cannot succeed in making an efficient laborer of him,
I think it will be useless for any one else to attempt it; and I
trust that we may hereafter have the poor privilege of being
let alone in reference to this class of our population." In
South Carolina, nearly everybody spoke of the negro as
though he had become the special charge of the Yankees;
here, however, with the exception of an occasional remark
to the effect that Greeley ought to come down and look after
his family, there is much of this talk which indirectly asserts
the continued supremacy of the whites over the blacks.
That many of the leading men desire to see the negro
have a fair chance is beyond all question. I have met some
such men. They take pains to tell me that he was very
docile and trustworthy during the war, that he is not to
blame for being free, and that he ought to be justly treated
now. A few men even go so far as to urge that he must
be educated. This is the bright side of the picture.
There was anexciting season in the recent Methodist Annual Conference, at Macon, over the case of a certain Rev.
JOH. Caldwell, whose offence appeared to be that he had
preached two sermons on the "Abuses of Slavery."  One
would think a minister of the Gospel might speak upon that
subject, but the native Georgian loves the spirit of slavery
as well now as he ever did, and the action of the presiding
elder in removing Mr. Caldwell was sustained by the Conference. And this in the month of November, 1865!
The complaint that the free negro will not work is even
more common than in South Carolina. There I found many
persons anxious to argue the point, anxious to show me
why he would not work; but here the fact is assumed in a
somewhat lofty manner that precludes discussion.
That the negro will not work simply because he is free
is the most insolent of all the humbugs of Southern society.
Thus, a Macon gentleman, who has a plantation below Albany, told me of his experience.  He was in the army of
380 
TIIE FREEDMEN'S SITUATION.
Johnston, and came home in the early part of June. He
heard that many planters were losing their help, and at once
went down to his plantation, called his negroes together,
made them a little speech, told them they were free, and
could go where they pleased, said he would be glad to have
them remain where they were, and would pay them fair
wages for fair work. Some conference followed, resulting
in arrangements mutually satisfactory. The negroes were
faithful to their work all through the season, he has fairly
set off to them their share of the crops made, and everything on his plantation has prospered.  He  has added about
fifty to the hands thereon, and made a contract for the coming year with the whole number. Yet his neighbors, proceeding on the assumption that the freedmen will not work,
have, of course, found all kinds of difficulty with them, and
are generally unable to make contracts for next season. I
have yet to hear of a single instance in which the method
adopted by this gentleman has failed in securing work.
Everybody tells the Northern man that the negroes all
expect a gift of lands or mules at Christmas. I have made
numberless inquiries among them, bearing upon this point,
and I declare my confident conviction that the assertion is
untrue. There are some negroes in the southern, or perhaps I should say the southeastern section, who do expect
some division of land at that time; and there are some in the
western part who appear to have hopes that Christmas will
bring them mules and carts; but the aggregate number of
both these classes is comparatively small, and is very far
from warranting the talk which one everywhere hears.
The truth in respect to the situation is, that the negroes
are uncommonly ignorant of their rights and responsibilities.  The State is very large, and the regular agents of the
Freedmen's Bureau are very few in number. The old negro at Miacon, who said to me, "One say dis, an' one say
dat, an' we don' know, an' so hol' off till Janerwery," ex
381 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
pressed the feeling of his people. The negro is lazy, he
is improvident, and he prefers job work to season-contract
work; but where he is honestly informed and fairly treated,
I believe he does quite as well as any one had a right to
expect that he would.
The negroes of this State seem more suspicious and distrustful of the whites than those of the Carolinas.  I judge
that the Western troops did not use them quite fairly, and
failed to strengthen their confidence in the Yankees. Moreover, not a few of the numerous post-commandants have
been men utterly unfit to deal with the blacks, while I fear
that some of them have been only less pro-slavery than the
natives themselves. The appointment of local agents of
the Freedmen's Bureau will give the blacks an opportunity
to appeal to some responsible authority; and when these are
good men, it will do much to bring about a proper relationship between the two classes of people.
In some sections a new method of crime is developing.
In almost any of the larger places it is matter of daily report that negroes have been guilty of theft for which bad
whites are primarily responsible. In a few counties there
are reported gangs of which white men are leaders and
negroes are members, whose purpose is systematic plunder;
and at MAlacon I heard of a gang thus organized for the murder of men against whom the leaders had spite or prejudice.
I believe this state of affairs prevails more generally in the
northwestern section than elsewhere.
The negro's prospects are not, on the whole, as good as
they ought to be in this great State. He has freedom in
name, but it will be some time before he gets it in fact.
Hils hope lies in the continued military occupation of the
State and the continued existence of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Even with these for his aid and protection, his condition is
bad enough; take these away, and in a good portion of the
counties he would very soon not even have left the name of
freedman.
382 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
XLIII.
SOMIE GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON THE SITUATION IN
GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS.
O.x SnirBO,XPD, December 7, 1865.
F  the representatives elect from the Southern States
have been admitted to their seats in Congress, then has
the South been victorious.  But if the House has organized
without their help, and if the whole reconstruction question
is left open for general discussion in that body and in the
public press, then indeed is there cause for most devout
thanksgiving on this day set apart by the President.
MIy fourteen weeks' tour is at an end, and I am returning
to New  York.   I have travelled over more than half the
stage and railway routes in the States of North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia. I have been generally treated
with civility and occasionally with courteous cordiality. I
judge, from the stories told me by various persons, that my
reception was, on the whole, something better than that
accorded to the majority of Northern travellers.
I went South to study the political situation. I did not
go to view the country, and consequently my letters have
given but meagre information regarding the soil and climate
and productions of the States visited. In pursuance of the
plan marked out from the beginning, I sought conversation
with all classes of Southerners, -my object being to gather
information at first hand and to keep my reports free from
the bias and prejudice of Northern sojourners. I was not
obliged to write in the interest of any party or any person,
and was not required to furnish arguments for upholding or
breaking down any particular theory of reconstruction. In
a word, my duty was that of a reporter. I meant to tell the
truth, and I hoped to find the truth pleasant to tell.
383 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
Yet the conclusion of the whole matter is, that a very
grave mistake, not to say a criminal blunder, has been committed, if the Southern representatives have been admitted
into Congress.
It will not be safe to admit them to their seats at present.
Some of them ought never to be admitted. They have
no business in a Congress of the United States, for they are
either of bitterly rebellious spirit or are encased in the poisonous bigotries of State supremacy. Against these the
doors of our legislative halls should be forever closed.
Other men there are of better disposition and larger views;
but the time has not come for even their participation in the
national counsels.  If they are really fit for the places to
which they have been chosen nothing will be lost if they
prove anew that those also serve who stand and wait.
For it must be said that public sentiment is changing very
rapidly in the South, and not wholly in the right direction.
The President went to the extreme limit of magnanimity;
but the more he gave the more was demanded. I have recently seen an article in one of the Southern papers in which
the removal of Secretary Stanton is asked as a good-will
offering to the people of the South; and a knot of gentlemen at the hotel in Augusta argued to me that the unconditional release of Jeff Davis was necessary to prove the
kindly disposition of the North! So far as the people of
Georgia and South Carolina, and a large proportion of those
of North Carolina, are concerned, the indorsement of President Johnson, of which so much is said in their newspapers,
is merely a grateful sense of favors to be received.
Possibly we were wrong to hope that one season could
sow the grain of reconstruction and gather its fruitage of
good order and fair respect for human rights. At least this
season has not done that. I am sure the nation longs for
nothing else so much as for honest and heroic peace; yet let
not the representatives of the nation mistake this longing for
384 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
wealness of faith or faintness of purpose in respect to the
final triumph of justice.
It cannot be said that fireedom of speech has been fully
secured in either of the three States which I have visited.
Personally, I have very little cause of complaint, for my
role was rather that of a listener than of a talker; but I
met many persons who kindly cautioned me, that at such
and such places, and in such and such company, it would be
advisable to refrain from conversation on certain topics.
Among the members of the better class of people, resident
in the cities and large towns, I found a fair degree of liber ality of sentiment and courtesy of speech; but in travelling,
off the main railway lines, and among the average of the
population, any man of Northern opinions must use much
circumspection of language.
It follows, of course, that safety of person is not assured.
Very likely one might travel through every county of either
State without harm; but any Union man must expect to
hear many insulting words; and any Northern man is sure
to find his principles despised, his people contemned, and
himself subjected to much disagreeable contumely; while
any man holding and openly advocating even moderately
radical sentiments on the negro question, stands an excellent
chance, in many counties of Georgia and South Carolina, of
being found dead some morning, -shot from behind, as is
the custom of the country. Of course the war has not
taught its full lesson till even ]Ir. Wendell Phillips can go
into Georgia and proclaim " The South Victorious."
The leading men generally invite immigration, and are
honest and sincere in their expression of desire for the influx
of new life. They will, I am sure, do all they can to make
the States safe and inviting for immigrants. In time even
South Carolina will be as free as New York; but at present
the masses of the people have little disposition of welcome
for Northerners.
385
il
y 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
The late private soldiers of the Rebel army are the best
class of citizens in the South. Generally speaking, they are
disposed to go to work, though few of them know what
work to do or to undertake. The bad classes are nearly all
the women, who are as rebellious and as malignant as ever;
most of the preachers, who are as hostile now as they were
three years ago; many of the Rebel ex-officers who did n't
see active service; and more than half the young men who
managed in one way or another to keep out of the army.
I often had occasion to notice, both in Georgia and the
Carolinas, the wide and pitiful difference between the residents of the cities and large towns and the residents of the
country. There is no homogeneity, but everywhere a rigid
spirit of caste. The longing,s of South Carolina are essentially monarchical rather than republican; even the common
people have become so debauched in loyalty that very many
of them would readily accept the creation of orders of nobility. In Georgia there is something less of this spirit; but
the upper classes continually assert their right to rule, and
the middle and lower classes have no ability to free themselves. The whole structure of society is full of separating
walls; and it will sadden the heart of any Northern man,
who travels in either of these three States, to see how poor
and meagre and narrow a thing life is to all the country people. Even with the best class of townsfolk it lacks very
much of the depth and breadth and fruitfulness of our Northern life, while with these others it is hardly less materialistic
than that of their own mules and horses. Thus Charleston
has much intelligence and considerable genuine culture; but
go twenty miles away and you are in the land of the barbarians. So Raleigh is a city in which there is love of beauty
and interest in education; but the common people of the
county are, at least, forty years behind the same class of
people in Vermont.   Moreover, in Macon  are many very
fine residences, and the city may boast of its gentility and
386
I
f 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
its respect for the nourishing elegances of life; but a dozen
miles out are large neighborhoods not yet half civilized. The
contrast between the inhabitants of the cities and those of the
country is hardly less striking than that between the various
classes constituting the body of the common people.   Going
firom one county into another is frequently going into a for  eig,l country.  Travel continually brings novelty, but with
that always came pain.  Till all these hateful walls of caste
are thrown down, we can have  neither intelligent love of
liberty, decent respect for justice, nor enlightened devotion
to the idea of national unity.  "Do  men gather grapes of
thorns, or figs of thistles?"
It has been the purpose of the ruling class apparently to
build new barriers between themselves and the common peo ple rather than tear away any of those already existing. I
think no one can understand the actual condition of the mass
of the whites of Georgia and the Carolinas, except by some
daily contact with them. The injustice done to three fourths
of them was hardly less than that done to all the blacks.
There were two kinds of slavery, and negro slavery was only
more wicked and debasing than white slavery. Nine of every
ten white men in South Carolina had almost as little to do
with even St-ate affairs as the negroes had. MIen talk of
plans of reconstruction. That is the best plan which proposes to do most for the common people. Till civilization
has been carried down into the homes and hearts of all classes,
we shall Shave neither regard for humanity nor respect for
the rights of the citizen.
Any -plan of reconstruction is wrong that does not assure
tolerat;.on of opinion and the elevation of the common people
to the consciousness that ours is a republican form of governmenit.. Whether they are technically in the Union or out
of tlie Union, it is the national duty to deal with these
S'tates in such manner as will most surely exalt the lower
mind middle classes of their inhabitants. The nation must
387 
THE SOUTHII SINCE THE WAR.
teach them a knowledge of their own rights, while it also
teaches them respect for its rights and the rights of man as
man.
Stopping, for two or three days in some back county, I was
always seeming to have drifted away from the world which
held Illinois and Ohio and Massachusetts.  The difficulty in
keeping connection with our civilization did not so much lie
in the fact that the whole structure of daily life is unlike ours,
nor in the other fact that I was forced to hear the Union and
all loyal men reviled, as in the greater fact that the people
are utterly without knowledge. There is everywhere a lack
of intellectual activity; while as for schools, books, newspapers, why, one may almost say there are none outside the
cities and towns!
Had schools abounded six years ago, I doubt if the masses
of the South could have been forced into the war.  "Why,
d-n it," said an Americus man to me, "the Union never
hurt me, but I was the hottest Secessionist I reckon you ever
saw.  Howell Cobb made me so."  Talking with a Columbia gentleman about sectional characteristics he said, "We
had one advantage over you: your people knew all about
the war, while ours only knew they were fighting for their
homes." I asked, "But could you have made your men
fight at all if they had understood the whole question at issue?"  He answered, "0, when I said we had'thle advantage, I spoke from a military stand-point."
In the important town of Charlotte, North (Ciarolina, I
found a white man who owned the comfortable; house in
which he lived, who had a wife and three half-gro%v\n children, and yet had never taken a newspaper in his lif,t. He
thought they were handy for wrapping purposes, b\ut he
could n't see why anybody wanted to bother with the reading of them.  He knew some folks spent money for tthm,
but he also knew a-many houses where none had ever bea
seen. In that State I found several persons - whites, an'
388 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
not of the "clay-eater" class either - who never had been
inside a school-house, and who did n't mean to'low their
children to go inside one. In the upper part of South Carolina I stopped one night at the house of a moderately wellto-do farmer who never had owned any book but a Testament, and that was given to him. When I expressed some
surprise at this fact, he assured me that he was as well off as
some other people thereabouts. Between Augusta and Milledgeville I rode in a stage-coach in which were two of the
delegates of the Georgia Convention. When I said that I
hoped the day would soon come in which school-houses would
be as numerous in Georgia as in Massachusetts, one of them
answered, "Well, I hope it'11 never come; popular education is all a d-n humbug, in my judgment"; whereupon the
other responded, "That's my opinion too." These are exceptional cases, I am aware, but they truly index the situation of thousands of persons.
The Southern newspapers generally have a large advertising patronage, and appear to be prospering quite to the
satisfaction of their proprietors. But they are all local in
character, and most of them are intensely Southern in tone;
while as sources of general information, and particularly of
political information, they are beneath notice. The Southern colleges have mostly suspended operations on account
of the war.   Efforts are making to reopen them, and th,se
in Georgia will probably be in working order by next
spring. But that best fruit of modern civilization, so plentifull in the North,- the common-school house,- is almost
wholly unknown in the Carolinas and Georgia. I have
scarcely seen a dozen in my whole journey, while a trip of
the same number of miles in New York and New England
would probably show me five hundred. Underneath this
one little fact lies the whole cause of the war.
The situation is horrible enough when the full force of
this fact is comprehended; yet there is a still lower deep,
389 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
- there is small desire, even feeble longing, for schools and
books and newspapers. The chief end of man seems to have
been "to own a ni,gger."  The great majority of the common
people know next to nothing, either of history or contemporaneous affairs; either of the principles of government or the
acts of their own government; either of the work or thought
of the present age; either of the desires or the purposes of
nations. They get their information and their opinions
mainly from the local office-seekers. It is therefore inevitable that the one should be meagre and the other narrow. It
is this general ignorance, and this general indifference to
knowledge, that make a Southern trip such wearisome work.
You can touch the masses with few of the appeals by which
we move our own people. There is very little aspiration
for larger life; and, more than that, there is almost no opportunity for its attainment. That education is the stairway
to'a nobler existence is a fact which they either fail to comprehend or to which they are wholly indifferent.
Where there is such a spirit of caste, where the ruling
class has a personal interest in fostering prejudice, where
the masses are in such an inert condition, where ignorance
so generally prevails, where there is so little ambition for
betterment, where life is so hard and material in its tone, it
is not strange to find much hatred and contempt. Ignorance
is generally cruel and frequently brutal. The political leaders of this people have apparently indoctrinated them with
the notion that they are superior to any other class in the
country. Hence there is usually very little effort to conceal the prevalent.scorn of the Yankee, - this term being applied to the citizen of any Northern State. Any plan
of reconstruction is wrong that tends to leave these old
leaders in power. A few of them give certain evidence of a
change of heart, - by some means save these for the sore
and troubled future; but for the others, the men who not
only brought on the war, but ruined the mental and moral
I'D 9 0
w 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
force of their people before unfurling the banner of RPebellion,
- for these there should never any more be place or countenance among honest and humane and patriotic people.
Wihen the nation gives them life and a chance for its continuance, it shows all the magnanimity that humanity can
in such case afford.
In North Carolina there is a great deal of something that
calls itself Unionism; but I know nothing more like the
apples of Sodom than most of this North Carolina Unionism.   It is a cheat, a will-o'-the-wisp, and any man who
trusts it will meet with overthrow.  There may be in it the
seed of loyalty, but woe to him who mistakes the germ for
the ripened fruit. In all sections of the State I found abundant hatred of some leading or local Secessionist; but how
full of promise for the new era of national life is the Unionism which rests only on this foundation?
In South Carolina there is very little pretence of love for
the Union, but everywhere a passionate devotion to the
State; and the common sentiment holds that man guilty of
treason who prefers the United States to South Carolina.
There is no occasion to wonder at the admiration of the people for AVade Hampton, for he is the very exemplar of their
spirit,- of their proud and narrow and domineering spirit.
It is our duty," he says, in a letter which he has recently
addressed to the people of the State,-" it is our duty to support the President of the United States so long as he manifersts a disposition to restore all our rights as a sovereign
State." That sentence will forever stand as a model of
cool arrogance, and yet it is in full accord with the spirit of
the South-Carolinians.  The war has taught them that the
physical force of the nation cannot be resisted, and they
will be obedient to the letter of the law; but the whole current of their lives flows in direct antagonism to its spirit.
In Georgia there is something worse than sham Unionism
or cold acquiescence in the issue of battle: it is the univer
391 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
sally prevalent doctrine of the supremacy of the State. In
South Carolina, a few men stood up against the storm, but
in Georgia that man is hopelessly dead who doubted or faltered. The common sense of all classes pushes the necessity
of allegiance to the State into the domain of morals as well
as into that of politics; and he who did not "go with the
State" in the Rebellion is held to have committed the unpardonable sin. At.lacon I met a man who was one of
the leading Unionists in the winter of 1860- 61.  He told
me how he suffered then for his hostility to secession, and
yet he added, " I should have considered myself forever
disgraced, if I had n't heartily gone with the State when she
decided to fight." I believe it is the concurrent testimony
of all careful travellers in Georgia, that there is everywhere
only cold toleration for the idea of national sovereignty,
and but little pride in the strength and glory and renown of
the United States of America.
Much is said of the hypocrisy of the South.  I found but
little of it anywhere. The North-Carolinian calls himself a
Unionist, but he makes no special pretence of love for the
Union. He desires many favors, but he asks them generally on the ground that he hated the Secessionists. He expects the nation to recognize rare virtue in that hatred, and
hopes it may win for his State the restoration of her political rights; but he wears his mask of nationality so lightly
that there is no difficulty in removing it.  The South-Carolinian demands only something less than he did in the days
before the war, but he offers no plea of Unionism as a guaranty for the future.   He rests his case on the assumption
that he has fully acquiesced in the results of the war, and he
honestly believes that he has so acquiesced. His confidence
in South Carolina is so supreme that he fails to see how
much the conflict meant. He walks by such light as he has,
and cannot yet believe that destiny has decreed his State a
secondary place in the Union. The Georgian began by be
392 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
lieving that Rebellion in the interest of slavery was honorable, and the result of the war has not changed his opinion.
Ile is anxious for readmission to fellowship with New York
and Pennsylvania and Connecticut, but he supports his application by little claim of community of interest with other
States. His spirit is hard and uncompromising; he demands
rights, but does not ask favors; and he is confident that
Georgia is fully as important to the United States as they
are to Georgia.
The fact that such a large proportion of the offices in the
gift of the people of these States have been filled with men
who were officers in the Rebel army does not in itself furnish any argument against the good disposition of the people. The sentiment which voluntarily confers honor on a
manl  who has shown personal bravery, who has been plucky
and daring and-gallant, is one we cannot afford to crush,
it is one of the strong moral forces of a nation, and deserves
nurture rather than condemnation.  Moreover, in not a few
cases these ex-officers are of better will and purpose toward
the government than any other men in their respective localities. It may not be pleasant to us to recognize this fact;
but I am confident that we shall make sure progress toward
securing domestic tranquillity and the general welfare just
in proportion as we act upon it.
The other fact, that almost every candidate was defeated
who did n't "go with the State" during the war is one of
serious import. It indicates a spirit of defiance to the nation, of determined opposition to the principle of national
unity.   So long as this spirit prevails, we can hope for no
sound peace. It will not again marshal armies in the field.
Such a thing is utterly beyond the range of possibilities so
far as this generation or the next is concerned.  A  few untamed fire-eaters will bluster, and local politicians will brag,
but the leaders are wiser than they were, and the people
have had enough of war. But there are things quite as bad
17.
393 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
as open war; and one of these is a sullen and relentless antagonism to the idea of national sovereignty,- from which
will breed passionate devotion to local interests, unending
persecution of the freedmen, never-ceasing, clamor in behalf
of State rights, and continual effort to break away from the
solemn obligations of the national debt.
That is the true plan of reconstruction which makes haste
very slowly.   It does not comport with the character of our
government to exact pledges of any State which are not exacted of all.   The one sole needful condition is, that each
State establish a government whereby all civil rights at
least shall be assured in their fullest extent to every citizen.
The Union is no Union, unless there is equality of privileges
among the States. When Georgia and the Carolinas establish governments republican in fact as well as in form, they
will have brought themselves into harmony with the national
will, and may justly demand readmission to their former political relations in the Union.  It is no time for passion or
bitterness, and it does not become our manhood to do anything for revenge. Let us have peace and kindly feeling;
yet, that our peace may be no sham or shallow affair, it is
painfully essential that we keep these States awhile within
national control, in order to aid the few wise and just men
therein who are fighting the great fight with stubborn prejudice and hidebound custom. Any plan of reconstruction is
wrong which accepts forced submission as genuine loyalty
or even as cheerful acquiescence in the national desire and
purpose.
Prior to the war we heard continually of the love of the
master for his slave, and the love of the slave for his master.
There was also much talk to the effect that the negro lived
in the midst of pleasant surroundings, and had no desire to
change his situation. It was asserted that he delighted in a
state of dependence, and throve on the universal favor of the
whites. Some of this language we conjectured might be ex
O' 9 4 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
travagant; but to the single fact that there was universal
good-will between the two classes every Southern white
person bore evidence.   So, too, during my  trip through
Georgia and the Carolinas they have generally seemed anxious to convince me that the blacks behaved well during the
war,- kept at their old tasks, labored cheerfully and faithfully, did not show a disposition to be lawless, and were
rarely guilty of acts of violence, even in sections where there
were many women and children, and but few white men.
Yet I found everywhere now the most direct antagonism
between the two classes. The whites charge generally that
the negro is idle and at the bottom of all local disturbance,
and credit him with most of the vices and very few of the
virtues of humanity.   The negroes charge that the whites
are revengeful, and intend to cheat the laboring class at
every opportunity, and credit them with neither good purposes nor kindly hearts. This present and positive hostility
of each class to the other is a fact that will sorely perplex
any Northern man travelling in either of these States. One
would say, that, if there had formerly been such pleasant
relations between them, there ought now to be mutual sympathly and forbearance, instead of mutual distrust and antagonism. One would say, too, that self-interest, the common
interest of capital and labor, ought to keep them in harmony; while the fact is, that this very interest appears to
put them il an attitude of partial defiance toward each
other. I believe the most charitable traveller must come to
the conclusion that the professed love of the whites for the
blacks was mostly a monstrous sham or a downright false
pretence. For myself, I judge that it was nothing less than
an arrant humbug.
Individual cases of real attachment to individual servants
were doubtless common enough before the war, and an honest observer finds not a few of them even now. But, having seen the present relations of the two classes, I wonder
395
I. 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
that I or any one else could ever have believed that the
common white people, as a class, had any real love for the
blacks as a race. Some of the better men are now willing
to concede to them the minor rights of humanity, but not
one man in five thousand proposes to give them all the
rights of men  and women, and scarcely one in twenty thousand would invest any of them with the rights of citizenship. To dch-eam that any of these States will voluntarily
grant the ballot to the negro during this generation seems
to me to qualify yourself for the insane asylum. The plainest of all plain requirements is that the freed negro shall
have the right to be heard in the courts; and the fierce
and bitter opposition to meeting this requirement gives the
sharp and unequivocal lie to all procssions of love for him.
The negro is no model of virtue or manliness.   He loves
idleness, he has little conception of right and wrong, and he
is improvident to the last degree of childishness.   He is a
creature, -as some of our own people will do well to keep
carefully in mind,- he is a creature just forcibly released
from slavery. The havoc of war has filled his heart with
confused longings, and his ears with confused sounds of
rights and privileges: it must be the nation's duty, for it
cannot be left wholly to his late master, to help him to a
clear understanding of those rights and privileges, and also
to lay upon him a knowledge of his responsibilities. He is
anxious to learn, and is very tractable in respect to minor
matters; but we shall need almost infinite patience with
him, for he comes very slowly to moral comprehensions.
Going into the States where I went, -and perhaps the
fact is also true of the other Southern States,- going into
Georgia and the Carolinas, and not keeping in mind the
facts of yesterday, any man would almost be justified in
concluding that the end and purpose in respect to this poor
negro was his extermination. It is proclaimed everywhere
that he will not work, that he cannot take care of himself,
396 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
"that he is a nuisance to society, that he lives by stealing,
and that he is sure to die in a few months; and, truth to
tell, the great body of the people, though one must not say,
intentionally, are doing all they well can to make these
assertions true.  If it is not said that any considerable num   ber wantonly abuse and outrage him, it must be said that
they manifest a barbaric indifference to his fate which just as
surely drives him on to destruction as open cruelty would.
There are some men and a few women -and perhaps
the number of these is greater than we of the North gener   ally suppose - who really desire that the negro should now
have his full rights as a human being. With the same pro   portion of this class of persons in a community of Northern
constitution, it might justly be concluded that the whole com   munity would soon join or acquiesce in the effort to secure
for him at least a fair share of those rights.  Unfortunately,
however, in these Southern communities the opinion of such
persons cannot have the same weight it would in ours.  The
spirit of caste, of which I have already spoken, is an element
figuring largely against them in any contest involving prin   ciple,- an element of whose practical workings we know
very little.  The walls between individuals and classes are
so high and broad that the men and women who recognize
the negro's rights and privileges ais a freeman are almost as
far from the masses as we of the North are. MIoreover, that
any opinion savors of the "Yankee "-in other words, is new
to the South - is a fact that even prevents its consideration
by the great body of the people.  Their inherent antagonism
to everything from the North- an antagonism fostered and
cunningly cultured for half a century by the politicians in the
interest of slavery - is something that no traveller can pho  tograph, that no Northern man can understand, till he sees it
with his own eyes, hears it with his own ears, and feels it by
his own consciousness. That the full freedom of the negroes
would be acknowledged at once is something we had no war
l-.
397
-k
II 
THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
rant for expecting. The old masters grant them nothing,
except at the requirement of the nation, as a military or a
political necessity; and any plan of reconstruction is wrong
which proposes to at once or in the immediate future substitute free-will for this necessity.
Three fourths of the people assume that the negro will not
labor except on compulsion; and the whole struggle between
the whites on the one hand and the blacks on the other hand
is a struggle for and against compulsion. The negro insists,
very blindly perhaps, that he shall be free to come and go
when he pleases; the white insists that he shall only come
and go at the pleasure of his employer. The whites seem
wholly unable to comprehend that freedom for the negro
means the same thing as freedom for them. They readily
enough admit that the government has made him free, but
appear to believe that they still have the right to exercise
over him the old control. It is partly their misfortune, and
not wholly their fault, that they cannot understand the national intent as expressed in the Emancipation Proclamation
and the Constitutional Amendment. I did not anywhere find
a man who could see that laws should be applicable to all
persons alike; and hence even the best men hold that each
State must have a negro code. They acknowledge the overthrow of the special servitude of man to man, but seek through
these codes to establish the general servitude of man to the
Commonwealth.   I had much talk with intelligent gentlemen
in various sections, and particularly with such as I met during the Conventions at Columbia and MIilledgeville, upon
this subject, and found such a state of feeling as warrants
little hope that the present generation of negroes will see the
day in which their race shall be amenable only to such laws
as apply to the whites.
I think the freedmen divide themselves into four classes:
one fourth recognizing very clearly the necessity of work,
and going about it with cheerful diligence and wise fore
398
I 
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.
thought; one fourth comprehending that there must be labor,
but needing considerable encouragement to follow it steadily;
one fourth preferring idleness, but not specially averse to
doing some job work about the towns and cities; and one
fourth avoiding labor as much as possible, and living by vol untary charity, persistent begging, or systematic pilfering. It
is true that thousands of the a,ggregate body of this people
appear to have hoped, and perhaps believed, that freedom
meant idleness; true, too, that thousands are drifting about
the country or loafing about the centres of population in a
state of vagabondae. Yet of the hundreds with whom I
talked, I found less than a score who seemed beyond hope of
reformsation. It is a cruel slander to say that the race will
not work except on compulsion.  I made much inquiry whereever I went, of great numbers of planters and other employers, and found but very few cases in which it appeared that
they had refused to labor reasonably well when fairly treated
and justly paid. Grudgingly admitted to any of the natural
rights of man, despised alike by Unionists and Secessionists,
wantonly outraged by many and meanly cheated by more of
the old planters, receiving a hundred cuffs for one helping
hand and a thousand curses for one kindly word, they bear
themselves toward their former masters very much as white
men and women would under the same circumstances. True,
by such deportment they unquestionably harm themselves;
but consider of how little value life is from their stand-point.
They grope in the darkness of this transition period, and
rarely find any sure stay for the weary arm and the fainting
heart. Their souls are filled with a great but vague longing
for freedom; they battle blindly with fate and circumstance
for the unseen and uncomprehended, and seem to find every
man's hand raised against them either for blows or reproaches.
What wonder that they fill the land with restlessness!
However unfavorable this exhibit of the negroes in respect
to labor may appear, it is quite as good as can be made for
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THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
the whites. I everywhere found a condition of affairs in this
regard that astounded me. Idleness, not occupation, seemed
the normal state. It is the boast of men and women alike,
that they have never done an hour's work. The public
mind is thoroughly debauched, and the general conscience is
lifeless as the grave.  I met hundreds of hale and vigorous
young men who unblushingly owned to me that they had
not earned a penny since the war closed. Nine tenths of
the people must be taught that labor is even not debasing.
It was pitiful enough to find so much idleness, but it was
more pitiful to observe that it was likely to continue indefinitely.  The war will not have borne proper fruit if our
peace does not speedily bring respect for labor as well as respect for man. When we have secured one of these things,
we shall have gone far toward securing the other; and when
we have secured both, then, indeed, shall we have noble
cause for glorying in our country, - true warrant for exulting that our flag floats over no slave.
Meantime, while we patiently and helpfully wait for the
day in which
"All men's good shall
Be each man's rule, and Universal Peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,"
there are at least five things for the nation to do: make haste
slowly in the work of reconstruction; temper justice with
mercy, but see to it that justice is not overborne; keep military control of these lately rebellious States till they guarantee a republican form of government; scrutinize carefully the
personal fitness of the men chosen therefrom as representatives in the Congress of the United States; and sustain therein some agency that shall stand between the whites and the
blacks and aid each class in coming to a proper understanding of its privileges and responsibilities.
Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
400