FOOTNOTES:
[1] Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI., 214.
[2] Ficklen’s History of Reconstruction in Louisiana, states that the highest number on the roll at any time was ninety-eight, 68.
[3] By a vote of 72:13. Ficklen, 70.
[4] Lincoln’s plan. See letter of March 13, 1864, to Hahn, Nicolay-Hay, VIII., 434.
[5] Rhodes and Ficklen differ slightly in their numbers. Rhodes depends upon Sen. Exe. Doc., 38 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 91, 4.
[6] Within the Union lines was about one-third the area of the State, according to the census of 1860, and two-thirds of the population.
[7] Already Thaddeus Stevens had devised and won followers for his territorial scheme of reconstruction. For a full statement see Rhodes, United States, V., 551.
[8] Ficklen regards this story as well-substantiated (113), though Warmoth himself stated that he received the money to defray his expenses from the Executive Committee. House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 350. The writer has not regarded this as within her investigation.
[9] Debates of the Convention, 1864, 623. Illegal also was the effort of the mayor to suppress the convention. See Cox, Three Decades, 430-2.
[10] Blaine regarded this as the “original mistake” of the South. Suffrage would have then followed as a necessity and boon to the South. Blaine, Twenty Years, II., 474-5.
[11] The Congressional Committee reported the plan as early as April 30, 1866. Globe, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., 2286.
[12] Statutes at Large, XIV., 428. The essential sections, 3 and 4, were later held unconstitutional. Cases of U. S. vs. Reese, 92 U. S., 214, and U. S. vs. Cruikshank, 92 U. S., 554.
[13] United States Statutes at Large, XV., 2.
[14] Ibid., 14. This act was drafted by Stanton. Gorham, Stanton, II., 373.
[15] Globe, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., 4216.
[16] For a full account of the early period of reconstruction in this State see Ficklen, History of Reconstruction in Louisiana. As evidence that election disorders were not wholly a result of reconstruction, it might not be amiss to call attention to the governor’s valedictory message of 1856. Society in Louisiana before the war, while polite and even more—brilliant, had been far from law-abiding with its frequent encounters under the duelling oaks, the Plaquemines frauds of 1844, and the riot of 1855. See Gayarré, IV., 679.
[17] For an account of the conflicting testimony on these outrages see House Misc., Doc., 41 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 13.
[18] Based on House Repts., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 92, 24-5. See also National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Carpenter’s sketch of him to the Senate may be quoted: “There is in Louisiana a very remarkable young man, dignified in mien, of elegant presence, and agreeable conversation; a man full of resources, political and social,—gallant, daring, and with a genius for politics; such a man as would rise to power in any great civil disturbance, embodying in himself the elements of revolution, and delighting in the exercise of his natural gifts in the midst of political excitement.” Globe, 42 Cong., 3 Sess., Appendix, 200.
[19] Annual Cyclopedia, 1868, 434.
[20] Nordhoff tells of the rise of a young New Yorker who returned from acting as supervisor in an up-country parish to present returns which proved him the unanimous choice of that parish. Though not the nominee, two years later, his name appeared, strangely enough, on the tickets and, although not elected, the returning-board seated him. Nordhoff, The Cotton States, 48.
[21] The writer has been unable to get exact figures. The Commercial Bulletin of Feb. 22, 1869, enumerates seven Senators; while a negro in debate stated that there were forty-two of his brethren in the House. House Deb., 1870, 281.
[22] A negro Justice of the Peace issued a warrant which is a rare curiosity for bad spelling and grammar: “This is to cite, fy that i. the underseind, Justis. of. the. Peace O Pint. and in Pour. John. A. Stars. to. A-rest the Body. of Henre Evens and Bring. Hit, be four, me John Fields.” Copied from St. Mary’s Banner, a parish paper.
[23] It was not uncommon for a legislator to sign his name with a mark.—Crescent, Jan. 13, 1869.
[24] New Orleans, Commercial Bulletin, Nov. 17, 1869.
[25] At this time the legislature was convening in the Banque de la Louisiane.
[26] Jan. 13, 1869.
[27] The scalawag was the war-time Unionist or reconstructed rebel who had ceased opposing Congress. A negro preacher defines the difference between a carpet-bagger and scalawag as follows: “A carpet-bagger came down here from some place and stole enough to fill his carpet-bag, but the scalawag was a man who knew the woods and swamps better than the carpet-bagger did, and he stole the carpet-bagger’s carpet-bag and ran off with it.” House Misc. Doc., 42 Congress, 2 Sess., No. 211, 478.
[28] The writer did not find this especially true of Louisiana, but of the South generally.
[29] “Apparently the Radical authorities have lost the confidence and respect of the army. We do not think that writing to Washington letters of complaint is exactly the way to regain it.”—New Orleans, Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 21, 1869.
[30] New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 6, 1869. For a similar expression of feeling, Times, May 9, 1875.
[31] New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 14, 1869. “Wise liberality on the part of the northern people and of the government that ought to represent them would certainly be followed by strict and willing acquiescence.... We ought to prove by our demeanor toward those who come among us to buy our vacant lands ... that they are welcome and that liberal legislation will not be wasted upon us.”
[32] Ibid., Sept. 25, 1869.
[33] Ficklen gives this number, History of Reconstruction in Louisiana, 176.
[34] It might be noted that the following officers who figure conspicuously in the pages of this account were carpet-baggers: Warmoth, Kellogg, ‘, McMillan, Dewees, Jacques, who will figure in the frauds of ’72, Speaker Carr, Campbell, Packard, Dibble; 3-5000 settled in New Orleans, proportionally less in the parishes.
[35] See Times, May 9, 1875. From the evidence I have met, I do not believe the feeling against them was so hostile as it became a little later when the South was determined to drive them out. Blaine makes a real point when he says, “Northern men recalled in an offensive manner the power that had overcome and, as they thought, humiliated them,—recalled it before time had made them familiar with the new order of things.” Blaine, II., 472.
[36] Nordhoff tells of a negro in St. Mary’s parish who still in 1875 was retaining a mule halter he had purchased in anticipation of Uncle Sam’s gift, 49.
[37] It does not seem to me that Vice-President Wilson’s argument that the experiment of negro self-government would therefore have the greatest chance of success (Times, Aug. 21, 1876) here is necessarily true. It would rather turn upon whether the leadership they would assert were vicious or not.
[38] Due partly to the fact that they came from the large plantations where the civilizing contact with the white race was reduced to a minimum.
[39] A person sent into country parishes some months before election to gather up the colored vote; to hold meetings, to instruct the local leaders, mostly preachers and teachers, and to organize the party. Nordhoff, 67. As late as Dec., 1874, a leading negro replied to the query concerning his vote, that “they had not got the word yet.” House Rpts., 43 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 101, 89. Pinchback understood such organization and that gave him his strength. Ibid., 67.
[40] Nordhoff, 56.
[41] Sen. Deb., 1870, 218.
[42] Note the frank reply of a lawyer to a negro politician: “I stand ready, as far as in me lies, to protect them in their rights as citizens. Here my friendship stops; I am not their friend when it comes to official life. The colored man has just been redeemed from slavery, and in his new character he is unfit for office. It is an insult and outrage to place him over the white people as an office-holder.” Granting that slavery was wrong, that did not prove “that you should be put into office to run the government before your people have learned anything about the laws.” Sen. Rpts., 44 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 701, xxxv.
[43] Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 4, 1869.
[44] See, this volume, Chapters XI. and XII.
[45] Nordhoff, 18.
[46] It was Nordhoff’s opinion in 1875 that few laborers as ignorant as the average plantation hand could do as well anywhere else in the world, 21. Nordhoff was a young German immigrant who visited Louisiana as reporter for the New York Herald, and published his impressions after an investigation which bears every mark of care and fairness. One can scarcely accuse him of Southern bias when one reads: “I have been opposed to slavery ever since I sat on my father’s knee and was taught by him that slavery was the greatest possible wrong,” 49.
[47] Such a charge was made by a member in the House.
[48] Herbert says that ten paid taxes, Why the Solid South, 401.
[49] Commercial Bulletin, Jan. 19, 1869.
[50] Laws of Louisiana, 1868, No. 114.
[51] Ibid., 1869, No. 48.
[52] House Deb., 1869, 393.
[53] Ibid., 287.
[54] House Deb., 1869, 43-4. The lack of faith in Southern bonds was partly due to the unsettled condition, but also to the fact that just before the war many Southern States had repudiated their debts—an action later to be repeated.
[55] Ibid.
[56] One member asserted that $75,000 was thrown away in 1869 by the sale of the warrants on the streets to pay members. Ibid., 1870, 15.
[57] Sen. Journal, 1870, 12.
[58] Lowell testifies: “I can show that the greatest fraud ever perpetrated was the action of the Senate Committee on Election, whose clerk went out on the streets and coaxed men to come into the committee-room to act as witnesses in order that he might get half the fees. I state further that witness after witness has been paid by the Senate Election Committee who never gave one hour’s testimony.” House Deb., 1869, 12-13.
[59] Ibid., 50.