FOOTNOTES:
[132] It was our good fortune to be present. We remember distinctly his happy face, his words of gratitude and thanks. And as we looked around every face wore an expression of complete satisfaction.
THE DECLINE OF NEGRO GOVERNMENTS.
CHAPTER XXVII.
REACTION, PERIL, AND PACIFICATION.
1875-1880.
The Beginning of the End of the Republican Governments at the South.—Southern Election Methods and Northern Sympathy.—Gen. Grant not Responsible for the Decline and Loss of the Republican State Governments at the South.—A Party without a Live Issue.—Southern War Claims.—The Campaign of 1876.—Republican Lethargy and Democratic Activity.—Doubtful Results.—The Electoral Count in Congress.—Gen. Garfield and Congressmen Foster and Hale to the Front as Leaders.—Peaceful Results.—President Hayes's Southern Policy.—Its Failure.—The Ideas of the Hon. Charles Foster on the Treatment of the Southern Problem.—"Nothing but Leaves" From Conciliation.—A New Policy demanded by the Republican Party.—A Remarkable Speech by the Hon. Charles Foster at Upper Sandusky, Ohio.—He calls for a Solid North against a Solid South.—He sounds the Key-note for the North and the Nation Responds.—The Decay and Death of the Negro Governments at the South Inevitable.—The Negro must turn his Attention to Education, the Accumulation of Property and Experience.—He will return to Politics when he shall be Equal to the Difficult Duties of Citizenship.
FROM 1868 to 1872 the Southern States had been held by the Republican party, with but a few exceptions, without much effort. The friends of the Negro began to congratulate themselves that the Southern problem had been solved. Every Legislature in the South had among its members quite a fair representation of Colored men. Among the State officers there was a good sprinkling of them; and in some of the States there were Negroes as Lieut.-Governors. Congress had opened its doors to a dozen Negroes; and the consular and diplomatic service had employed a number of them in foreign parts. And so with such evidences of political prosperity before their eyes the friends of the Negro at the North regarded his "calling and election sure."
In 1873 a great financial panic came to the business and monetary affairs of the country. It was the logic of an inflated currency, wild and visionary enterprises, bad investments, and prodigal living. Banks tottered and fell, large business houses suspended, and financial ruin ran riot. Northern attention was diverted from Southern politics to the "destruction that seemed to waste at noon-day." Taking advantage of this the South seized the shot-gun and wrote on her banners: "We must carry these States, peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must." An organized, deliberate policy of political intimidation assumed the task of ridding the South of Negro government. The first step was in the direction of intimidating the white leaders of the Republican organizations; and the next was to deny employment to all intelligent and influential Colored Republicans. Thus from time to time the leaders of the Republican party were reduced to a very small number. Without leaders the rank and file of the party were harmless and helpless in State and National campaigns. This state of affairs seemed to justify the presence of troops at the polls on election days. Under an Act of Congress "the President was empowered to use the army to suppress domestic violence, prevent bloodshed," and to protect the Negroes in the constitutional exercise of the rights conferred upon them by the Constitution. This movement was met by the most determined opposition from the South, aided by the sympathy of the Northern press, Democratic platforms, and a considerable element in the Republican party.
In 1874 the condition of affairs in the South was such as to alarm the friends of stable, constitutional government everywhere. The city of New Orleans was in a state of siege. Streets were blockaded with State troops and White Line leagues, and an open battle was fought. The Republican State government fell before the insurgents, and a new government was established vi et armis. Troops were sent to New Orleans by the President, and the lawful government was restored. The Liberal movement in the North, which had resulted in the defeat of the Republican tickets in Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and even in Massachusetts, greatly encouraged the Bourbon Democrats of the South, and excited them to the verge of the most open and cruel conduct toward the white and black Republicans in their midst.
A large number of Northern Legislatures passed resolutions condemning the action of the President in sending troops into the South, although he did it in accordance with law. Many active and influential Republicans, displeased with the action of the Republican governments at the South, and the conduct of the Forty-third Congress, demanded the destruction of the Republican party. The Liberal movement had started in 1872. Its leaders thought the time had come for a new party, and counselled the country accordingly.
The Forty-fourth Congress was organized by the Democrats. The Cabinet Ministers were divided on the policy pursued toward the South. In the autumn of 1875 the shot-gun policy carried Mississippi; and from the 6th of July till the Republican government in that State went down into a bloody grave, there was an unbroken series of political murders.
President Grant was met by a Democratic Congress; a divided Cabinet: Zachariah Chandler and Edwards Pierrepont were in sympathy with him; Bristow and Jewell represented the Liberal sentiment. Then, the Republican party of the North, and many leading journals, were urging a change of policy toward the South. The great majority of Republicans wanted a change, not because they did not sympathize with the Negro governments, but because they saw some of the best men in the party withdrawing their support from the administration of Gen. Grant. There were other men who charged that the business failures in the country were occasioned by the financial policy of the Republican party, and in a spirit of desperation were ready to give their support to the Democracy.
It was charged by the enemies of Gen. Grant that when he was elected President he had a solid Republican South behind him; that under his administration everything had been lost; and that he was responsible for the political ruin which had overtaken the Republican party at the South. The charge was false. The errors of reconstruction under the administration of President Andrew Johnson, and the mistakes of the men who had striven to run the State governments at the South had to be counteracted by the administration of President Grant. This indeed was a difficult task. He did all he could under the Constitution; and when Congress endeavored to pass the Force Bill, the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, made a speech against it in caucus. Mr. Blaine had a presidential ambition to serve, and esteemed his own promotion of greater moment than the protection of the Colored voters of the South. And Mr. Blaine never allowed an opportunity to pass in which he did not throw every obstacle in the way of the success of the Grant administration. Mr. Blaine has never seen fit to explain his opposition to the Force Bill, which was intended to strengthen the hands of the President in his efforts to protect the Negro voter at the South.
When the National Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, in the summer of 1876, there was still lacking a definite policy for the South. Presidential candidates were numerous, and the contest bitter. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, at that time Governor of Ohio, was nominated as a compromise candidate. There was no issue left the Republican party, as the "bloody shirt" had been rejected by the Liberals, and was generally distasteful at the North. But the initial success of the Democratic party South, and the loss of many Northern States to the Republicans, had emboldened the South to expect national success. But a too precipitous preparation for a raid upon the United States Treasury for the payment of rebel war claims threw the Republicans upon their guard, and, for the time being, every other question was sunk into insignificance. So the insolence of the "Rebel Brigadier Congress," and the letter of Samuel Jones Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, on the question of the Southern war claims, gave the Republican party a fighting chance. But there were a desperate South and a splendid campaign organizer in Mr. Tilden to meet. And with a shot-gun policy, tissue ballets, and intimidation at the South, while a gigantic, bold, and matchless system of fraudulent voting was pushed with vigor in the North, there was little show of success for the Republican ticket. The contest on the part of the Republicans was spiritless. It was difficult to raise funds or excite enthusiasm. The Republican candidate had only a local reputation. He had been to Congress, but even those who had known that had forgotten it. A modest, retiring man, Gov. Hayes was not widely known. The old and tried leaders were not enthusiastic. Mr. Blaine had no second choice. He was for himself or nobody. The Democrats prosecuted their campaign with vigor, intelligence, and enthusiasm. They went "into the school districts," and their organization has never been equalled in America.
The result was doubtful. One thing, however, was sure: the Negro governments of the South were now a thing of the past. Not a single State was left to the Republican party. Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were hanging by the slender thread of doubt, with the provisions of a returning board in favor of the Republican party. The returning boards were the creation of local law; their necessity having grown out of the peculiar methods employed by Democrats in carrying elections. These boards were empowered to receive and count the votes cast for presidential electors; and wherever it could be proven that intimidation and fraud had been used, the votes of such precincts, counties, etc., were to be thrown out. The three doubtful States named above were counted for the Republican presidential electors. Their work was carried before Congress. A high joint electoral commission was created by law, composed of the ablest men of the two parties in Congress, with the salt of judicial judgment thrown in. This commission examined the returns of the three doubtful States, and decided not to go behind the returns; and, according to a previous agreement, one branch of Congress ratifying, the candidate having the more votes was to be declared duly elected.
The country was in an unprecedented state of excitement; and even European governments felt the shock. The enemies of Republican government laughed their little laugh, and said that the end of the republic had come. British bankers brought out into the light Confederate bonds; while stocks in the United States went through an experience as variable as the weather in the Mississippi valley. The public press was intemperate in its utterances, and the political passions of the people were inflamed every hour. The national House of Representatives was a vast whirlpool of excitement,—or, rather it was an angry sea stirred to its depths, and lashing itself into aimless fury by day and by night. When the vote of a State was called, some Democrat would object, and the Senate, which was always present, would retire, and the House would then open a war of words running through hours and sometimes days. When the debate ended, or rather when the House had reached the end of its parliamentary halter, the Senate would again enter, the vote of the State would be counted, and the next one called. Thus the count proceeded through anxious days and weary nights. Business was suspended; and the bulletin boards of commercial 'changes were valueless so long as the bulletin boards of the newspapers contained "the latest news from Washington."
In this state of affairs there was need of statesmen at the head of the Republican minority in Congress. There were orators; but the demand was for men of judgment, energy, executive ability,—men in whom the Democrats had confidence, who could put a stop to filibustering, and secure a peaceful solution of a unique and dangerous problem.
These were forthcoming; the late President Garfield and Gov. Foster, then a member of Congress, with Kasson, Hale, and other members of Congress, were among those most active and effective in securing a peaceful result.
When the electoral fight was on, and the end seemed uncertain, these gentlemen stepped to the front and fairly won the reputation of statesmen. They saw that if the filibustering of the Democrats were brought to a close, it would have to be accomplished by the leaders in that party and on that side of the House. Accordingly they secured Fernando Wood, of New York, as the leader in opposition to filibustering, and John Young Brown, of Kentucky, as his lieutenant. The Republican policy was to allow the Democrats to lead and do the talking, while they should fall into line and vote when the proper time came. But Fernando Wood at the head of the Republicans as a leader, was a spectacle as strange and startling as Satan leading a prayer-meeting. It was too much for an orthodox, close-communion, hard-shell Republican like Martin I. Townsend!
On Thursday afternoon, the last day of the alarming scenes in Congress, nearly everybody had lost hope. There was no telling at what moment the government would be in anarchy. In the midst of the confusion, excitement, and threatening danger, the Hon. Charles Foster was the most imperturbable man in Congress. On Thursday afternoon Senator Hoar, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, saw Mr. Foster seated at his desk writing as quietly and composedly as if in his private office; he seemed perfectly oblivious to the angry storm which was raging about him. The cold-blooded, conservative New England Senator was as greatly amazed at the serenity of the clear-headed Western Congressman as he was distressed at the impending disaster. He went to Mr. Foster and talked very discouragingly respecting the situation. He said that the Senate was growing impatient at the dilatory conduct of the House, and would probably, at the earliest convenience, send a message to the House demanding that the latter open their doors and admit the Senate to complete the count. Congressman Foster stated to the Senator that the House was not in a temper to be driven; that a resolution of the character of the one proposed would hinder rather than help a peaceful solution of the vexatious count; and that if he would only possess his soul in patience, before the rising of another sun R. B. Hayes would be peaceably and constitutionally declared the President of the United States. And it was even as he said; for before four o'clock the next morning the count was completed, and Hayes declared the President of the United States for the Constitutional term of four years. This is given as one of the many unwritten incidents that occurred during this angry, and, probably, most perilous controversy that ever threatened the life of the American Republic.
A new policy for the South was now inevitable. From October 1876 till March 1877, President Grant had refused to recognize Chamberlain as Governor of South Carolina, or Packard as Governor of Louisiana. He had simply preserved those governments in statu quo. He had heard all that could be said in favor of the Republican side of the question, and seemed to believe that it was now beyond his power to hold up the last of the Negro governments with bayonets. He was right. It would have been as vain to have attempted to galvanize those governments into existence as to have attempted the resuscitation of a dead man by applying a galvanic battery. Governments must have, not only the subjective elements of life, but the powers of self-preservation. The Negro governments at the South died for the want of these elements. It was a pity, too, after the noble fight the Republican party of Louisiana and South Carolina had made, and after they had secured their electoral votes for Hayes, that their State officers who had been chosen at the same time should have been abandoned to their own frail governmental resources. But this was unavoidable. Their governments could not have existed twenty-four hours without the presence and aid of the United States army. And this could not have been done in the face of the sentiment against such use of the army which had grown to be nearly unanimous throughout the country. If the Republicans could have inaugurated their officers and administered their governments they would have received the applause of the administration at Washington and the God-speed of the Republican party of the North; but the moment the United States troops were withdrawn the Negro governments melted into nothingness.
Every thing had been tried but pacification. The men who best understood the temper of that section knew it was incapable, as a whole, of receiving the olive branch in the spirit in which the North would tender it. But a policy of conciliation was demanded; the Northern journals asked it. An ex-Major-General of the Confederate Army was called to the Cabinet of President Hayes, and was given a portfolio where he could do more for the South than in any other place. Gen. Longstreet, a gallant Confederate soldier during the late war, was made Postmaster at Gainesville, Georgia, and afterward sent as Minister to Turkey. Col. Mosby, another Confederate soldier, or guerilla, was sent to China, and Col. Fitzsimmons was made Marshal of Georgia. It was the policy of the Hon. Charles Foster to have the President recognize young men at the South who had the pluck and ability to divide the Bourbon Democratic party of that section, and hasten the day of better feeling between the sections. But the President, either incapable of comprehending this idea, or jealous of the credit that the country had already bestowed upon him, blundered on in selecting men to represent his policy in the South who had no following, and were, therefore, valueless to his cause. His heart was right, but he put too much confidence in Southern statesmen.
The South showed no signs of improvement. White Republicans were intimidated, persecuted, and driven out. The black Republicans were allowed to vote, but the Democrats counted the votes and secured all the offices. The President was under the influence of Alex. H. Stephens, of Georgia, and Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. He expected much; but he received nothing. Instead of gratitude he received arrogance. The Southern leaders in Congress sought to deprive the Executive of his constitutional veto; to starve the army; and to protract the session of Congress. The North had invited its "erring brethren" back, and had killed the fatted calf, but were unwilling to allow the fellow to eat all the veal! The conduct of the South was growing more intolerable every day; and the President's barren policy was losing him supporters. He had not tied to any safe advisers. Hon. Charles Foster, Senator Stanley Matthews, and Gen. James A. Garfield could have piloted him through many dangerous places. But he shut himself up in his own abilities, and left his friends on the outside. The South had gulped down every thing that had been given it, and was asking for more. Every thing had been given except the honor of the cause that the Union army had fought for. To complete the task of conciliation it was only required that the nation destroy the monuments to its hero dead, and open the treasury to the payment of rebel war claims, and pension the men who were maimed in an attempt to shoot the government to death. To the credit of President Hayes let history record that he did not surrender his veto power to arrogant and disloyal Southern Congressmen. He became convinced at last that the South was incapable of appreciating his kindness, and was willing to change front. His policy was inevitable. It did great good. It united the Republican party against the South; and a splendid cabinet, a clean administration, and the resumption of specie payments wrought wonders for the Republican party.
There was a ripe sentiment in the North in favor of "a change" of policy. The very men who had advocated pacification; who had "flowers and tears for the Gray, and tears and flowers for the Blue"; who wanted the grave of Judas equally honored with the grave of Jesus—the destroyer and the Saviour of the country placed in the same calendar;—were the first men to grow sick of the policy of pacification. But what policy to inaugurate was not clear to them.
In the summer of 1878 the Hon. Charles Foster returned to Ohio from Washington City. He had seen State governments in the North slip from the control of Republicans, because of the folly of the Hayes' policy of pacification toward the South. He had the good-sense to take in the situation. He saw that it was madness to attempt any longer to conciliate the South. He saw that the lamb and lion had lain down together, but that the lamb was on the inside of the lion. Brave, intelligent, and far-seeing, on the 1st of August, 1878, he gave the Republican party of the North a battle-cry that died away only amid the shouts of Republican State and National victories in 1880. This was all the North needed. A leader was demanded, and the Hon. Charles Foster sounded the key-note that met with a response in every loyal heart in the country. His idea was that as the South had not kept the faith; had not accorded protection to the Negro voter; had not broken up old Bourbon Democratic organizations, it was the imperative duty of the North to meet that section with a solid front. Hence his battle-cry: "A Solid North against a Solid South." The following is his famous speech—pure gold:
"I happened to be one who thought and believed that the President's Southern policy, as far as it related to the use of troops for the support of State governments, was right. I sustained it upon the ground of high principle, nevertheless it could have been sustained on the ground of necessity. The President has extended to the people of the South the hand of conciliation and friendship. He has shown a desire, probably contrary to the wishes of the great mass of his party, to bring about, by the means of conciliation, better relations between the North and South. In doing this he has alienated from him the great mass of the leading and influential Republicans of the country. He had lost their sympathy, and to a great degree their support. What has he received in return for these measures of conciliation and kindness? How have these measures been received by the South? What advance can we discover in them, of the recognition of the guarantees of the rights of the Colored men under the Constitutional Amendments? We see Jeff. Davis making speeches as treasonable as those of 1861, and these speeches endorsed and applauded by a great portion of their press and people. We see also the declaration of Mr. Singleton, of Mississippi, in answer to a question of mine on the floor of the House, declaring that his paramount allegiance in peace and war was due to his State.
"No gentleman from the South, or even of the Democratic party, has taken issue with him. We see also, all over the South, a disposition to resist the execution of the United States laws, especially in the matter of the collection of internal revenue. To-day there are four U. S. officers under arrest by the authorities of the State of South Carolina, in jail and bail refused, for an alleged crime in their State, while in fact these officers were discharging their duty in executing the laws of the United States in that State. Their State courts and their officers refused to obey the writs of the United States courts in the surrender of these men to the United States authorities. No former act of this treasonable State shows a more defiant attitude toward the U. S. Government, or a greater disposition to trample upon its authority. I trust the Administration will, in this case, assert in the most vigorous manner possible the authority of the United States Government for the rescue and protection of these officers. I have no bloody shirt to wave. If there is one man in this country, more than another, who desires peace and quiet between the sections, I believe I am that man. Gentlemen may philosophize over this question until they are gray, but you cannot escape the discussion of this question so long as a Solid South menaces the peace of the country. A Solid Democratic South means the control of the country by the spirit and the men who sought its destruction.
"My own opinion is that there can be no peace—this question will not down, until the menace of the Solid South is withdrawn. I had hoped that the policy of President Hayes would lead to the assertion, by a very considerable portion of the South, of their antagonism to Bourbon Democracy.
"I confess to a degree of disappointment in this, though I think I see signs of a breaking up of the Solid South in the independent movement that seemed to be gaining a foothold in all sections of that country. But the effective way to aid these independent movements, this breaking up of the Solid South, is for the North to present itself united against the Solid South. A Solid South under the control of the Democratic party means the control of the party by this element. It means the repeal of the Constitutional Amendments, if not in form, in spirit. It means the payment of hundreds of rebel claims. It means the payment of pensions to rebel soldiers. It means the payment for slaves lost in the Rebellion. It means the abrogation of that provision of the Constitution which declares, that the citizens of one State shall have all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the citizens of other States.
"If my Democratic friends who seem to be anxious to bring about peace and quiet between the sections are sincere and desire to make their expressions effective, they should act with that party that presents a solid front, a United North, so long as we are menaced with the Solid South.
"If it could be understood in the South that they are to be met with a Solid North, I do not believe that the Solid South would exist in that condition a single year. They retain this position because they believe that they can have the support of a fragment of the North; and thus with this fragment rule and control the country. I would have no fear of the control of the country by the Democratic party if it were made up of something like equal proportion from all sections of the country. I discuss this question, first, because I believe it the most important question at issue in the pending canvass. I repeat that it is the imperative duty of the North to meet the Solid South with a united front."[133]
This speech was delivered at Upper Sandusky, Wyandotte Co., Ohio. It thrilled the North, and put new life into the Republican party. It gave him the nomination for governor, and from 23,000 Democratic majority he redeemed the State by a Republican majority of 17,000. A wave of enthusiasm swept the country. His battle-cry became the editorial of a thousand journals, and hundreds of orators found ammunition enough in his little speech of a hundred lines to keep up a campaign of two years' duration. It is a fact that history should not omit to record, that from the 1st of August, 1878, until the election of James A. Garfield to the presidency, there was no cessation to the campaign in the North.
But the securing of a Solid North did not restore the Negro governments at the South. The North had rallied to rebuke an insolent South; to show the Democrats of that section that the United States Treasury should be protected, and that the honor of the nation would be maintained unsullied. If the South would not pay its honest debts there was every reason for believing that it would not pay the national debt. It was to be regretted that the Negro had been so unceremoniously removed from Southern politics. But such a result was inevitable. The Government gave him the statute-book when he ought to have had the spelling-book; placed him in the Legislature when he ought to have been in the school-house. In the great revolution that followed the war, the heels were put where the brains ought to have been. An ignorant majority, without competent leaders, could not rule an intelligent Caucasian minority. Ignorance, vice, poverty, and superstition could not rule intelligence, experience, wealth, and organization. It was here that the "one could chase a thousand, and the two could put ten thousand to flight." The Negro governments were built on the shifting sands of the opinions of the men who reconstructed the South, and when the storm and rains of political contest came they fell because they were not built upon the granite foundation of intelligence and statesmanship.
It was an immutable and inexorable law which demanded the destruction of those governments. It was a law that knows no country, no nationality. Spain, Mexico, France, Turkey, Russia, and Egypt have felt its cruel touch to a greater or less degree. But a lesson was taught the Colored people that is invaluable. Let them rejoice that they are out of politics. Let white men rule. Let them enjoy a political life to the exclusion of business and education, and they too will sooner or later be driven out of their places by the same law that sent the Negro to the plantations and to the schools. And if the Negro is industrious, frugal, saving, diligent in labor, and laborious in study, there is another law that will quietly and peaceably, without a social or political shock, restore him to his normal relations in politics. He will be able to build his governments on a solid foundation, with the tempered mortar of experience and knowledge. This is inevitable. The Negro will return to politics in the South when he is qualified to govern; will return to stay. He will be respected, courted and protected then. Then as a tax-payer, as well as a tax-gatherer, reading his own ballot, and choosing his own candidates, he will be equal to all the exigencies of American citizenship.