EFFECTS PRODUCED. A PERIOD OF ALARM.
Excitement throughout the State—Scenes at the Capitol—Metropolitan Arrests resisted—Secret Police—Government Officials Notified of the Extent of the Disaster—A Quorum of the Legislative or Judicial Bodies not Attainable—No Departures from the City—The K. K. K. Cabal Receiving that Attention from Caucusing Legislators which its Importance Demanded—What the State Judiciary Demanded—A Mob at the State-House—At Sunset the Situation Unchanged—A Sortie from the Capitol—Mobs along the Route—Seeking Refuge from the Excited Populace—Out of Danger—The New Situation—Governor Brownlow Escaping from the Temporary Fortress by an Alley-way—An Ugly Specimen of the Genus Ku-Klux—The Governor Recovers from the Attitude of a Suppliant—An Amusing Episode—“But how many suns, O Man, would look upon the Deed Unavenged?”—A Canard which Grew out of this Affair.
On the day following the grand coup de main of the Klan to which we have directed attention in the previous chapters, and which, in bringing depression to League affairs, sent the former’s mercury to a feverish height, great excitement prevailed throughout the State; and at the business centres, and more especially the capital, something like a popular demonstration greeted the arrival of news from provincial quarters. The wires had been buzzing with intelligence of the disaster since early dawn, and yet the news and telegraph offices found it impossible to throw off the steaming bulletins giving additional particulars, or summing up the history of the exploit in localities already heard from, with sufficient speed to meet the cravings of the multitude. The streets of the capital were filled with passengers, who, with white faces and lips compressed, seemed as firmly intent on reaching some point of general rendezvous as it was indubitably certain that they had nothing definite in view, but were tossed to and fro by a burning thirst for news that must and would not be satisfied. Occasionally, as the crowd kept this frantic pace, individuals would suffer themselves buttonholed, and made the subjects of lengthy confidences, but rarely, as one man’s property in the commodity of the hour was something which all might share at the bulletin-board; and so all day long the human tides ebbed and flowed along the news-channels, never manifesting impatience, but ever quickening their speed to keep pace with the now fairly excited messengers. Merchants and shop-keepers stood in their doors wearing prurient countenances, and anon, sending would-be purchasers away with curt replies; for since the sun rose on that eventful morn, had not traffic grown out of fashion? Women and children kept within doors without commands to that effect, for there was something in the very air of the crowds without that not only did not invite confidence, but positively frowned upon all advances thereto. The Metropolitan guards, who had special instructions, and whose force had been doubled since morning, moved along their beats wearing grave countenances, and occasionally scanning the faces of the crowd with furtive stare, as if in search of some secret which they half suspected lay hidden there. Once they ventured upon an arrest, being guided by their suspicions only, as was evident from their embarrassed movements; but though they employed a strong guard, and sought out the most thinly peopled avenues in making away with their prisoner, they had not proceeded above two blocks before they were set upon by the crowd, and compelled not only to relinquish their charge, but to seek safety in flight. It was even whispered that there was a secret police force abroad, deriving its authority from the opposition element in politics; but this was industriously denied in quarters where the facts should have been known, and after it became a rumor, every effort was made to quell suspicion. But, however that may have been, after the unsuccessful feint to which we have called attention, no further effort was made to interfere with the calm-faced crowds which, looking neither to the right nor left, persevered in that unvarying procession which led them to and from the news centres. A K. K. K. placard, which had been posted at a popular street corner during the previous night, and which, for contrasted reasons, had been given a wide berth by the rival factions, became, as the evening wore along, the one subject which seemed to possess sufficient interest to attract the regards of passers-by, and it is probable that its importance (like some sentient wonders that we wot of) was derived from the circumstance of its connection with weightier subjects.
It was probably past the hour of noon before the extent of the Ku-Klux raid was certainly known to the State authorities, and to say that the intelligence cast a palpable gloom over the various departments of government, would hardly particularize the situation with that definiteness which the curiosity of the reader may demand. After the noon recess it was found impossible to assemble a quorum of either the legislative or judicial functionaries, and when visitors sought individuals belonging to these branches, with a view to conference on private topics, they were, oftener than not, sent away with the intelligence that they had left the city. But this was scarcely true in any case, for not only was there no hegira of State officers from the scene of their labors on this day, but out-bound trains flew along the landscapes with hardly any reasonable ballast in the way of passengers. The secret of the whole business, as revealed soon after, showed that some very extensive caucusing was being done, and that the K. K. K. cabal, for the first time in its history, was receiving that attention from the government authorities which its importance demanded. It is not known with certainty what was resolved upon at these meetings, but it may be guessed, with tolerable assurance, that those bold measures soon afterwards instituted in the House (though enterprised too late for any practical use) received their inspiration from this excited period. And it was soon after published as an item of news, that the judiciary demanded of their law-making colleagues some immediate legislation that would enable them to grapple with the new problem in jurisprudence which the movement presented.
About the middle of the afternoon there was a popular demonstration in the neighborhood of the capitol, the crowds lounging in that direction in an objectless kind of way, but when, finding themselves under the shadow of the great building, developing a sudden enthusiasm for something, or some individual, they scarce knew what. For more than an hour they besieged the State functionaries with loud huzzahs, and only when they saw that the demonstration had been misunderstood, or that they would be given the cold shoulder, in any event, did they relinquish the purpose of hearing some report from their law-givers, and being heard in return. But when the countermarch movement began, very little time was consumed by the crowd in transporting itself out of sight and hearing—individuals, and especially those who had been conspicuous in the movement, walking hurriedly, and with their heads down, as if to conceal an expression of chagrin that lurked in their countenances.
At sunset the situation was unchanged, the main streets emptying themselves of their human currents, in obedience to some suburban attraction at intervals, only to be filled next hour with the chaffering multitudes, who resumed their fatuous pursuit of the unknown quantity in the news-problem with the same heat that it had been undertaken in the early portion of the day. It was at this precise hour that the Governor was observed to leave the State-house, accompanied by two gentlemen of his staff, and walk hurriedly along Cedar Street, in the direction of the public square. The crowds seemed determined to place their own interpretation on this movement, and having assembled in large force at the point where College street intersects that along which the party were passing, loud hootings were indulged in, and in forcing a passage through the crowd, the obnoxious individuals subjected to rougher jostling than was thought to be required by the emergency. Turning to reply to some taunt volunteered from the crowd, one of the gentlemen lost his hat by a blow from behind, and was deprived of the gratification which he might otherwise have received upon relieving himself of a few sentences of eloquent invective, by a storm of derisive cheers, which drowned every other sound. At the next crossing the demonstration was equally as large, if not so aggressive, and when the official trio reached a neighboring building, and immured themselves within its walls, they doubtless looked back upon the reminiscence with feelings of relief. But from after developments, it may be inferred that they had no sooner felt themselves exempt from the perils which had lately beset them, than they entered upon a conference to devise ways and means of escape from their temporary fortress (for such the building in which they had taken refuge proved to be). This would not have been difficult of accomplishment, in any event, and the tactics resolved upon by the besieged rendered it comparatively easy of attainment.
In less than ten minutes the throngs, who had assembled with no more serious object in view than to gratify an idle curiosity, and express their unfriendliness to their taskmasters by the methods usually adopted, had been taken up by the absorbent elements of the crowd flowing newsward, and were no more. If the Governor’s party had expected resistance of this character, they were to be deceived, for by the time the lamps were lighted, almost a calm pervaded that quarter; and when, a few moments later, the first of the party (who proved to be Governor Brownlow) left the building by a postern-gate in the rear, he was seen by none but the spies who had been set to watch. Hurrying along an alleyway, the honorable refugee had crossed two squares ere he emerged upon the broad street which led across an unfrequented portion of the city, to the vicinity of the mansion which he occupied. Halting here to reconnoitre and indulge a moment of quiet reflection, after the exciting events through which he had passed, he was suddenly encountered by a form of the peril from which he was seeking to escape that had more than once been suggested to his fancy, but which now presented itself in such palpable outline, and with an attitude so positively menacing, that his courage forsook him for the moment, and he recovered from the manner of a suppliant just in time to save himself from a very humiliating scene. The thing in question was an ugly and even frightful embodiment of the genus Ku-Klux, which, having been successful in its contemplated surprise, was very naturally disposed to dictate terms to its victim. As no violence was intended, it had time, however, for but a few tragic sentences, adopted from a repertory prepared for the occasion, before the frightened official had recovered his wits and his Greek.
Raising himself to his full stature, the Governor denied the assumed ghostliness of his interlocutor in these precise words: “Do you not know, fiend, that I possess the authority to have you shot or hung, and that I am strongly persuaded to exercise it?”
To which the “fiend” retorted in the following laconism “But how many suns, O man! would look upon the deed unavenged?” and realizing that they were quits, the parties to this amusing by-comedy went their respective ways.
The report of this transaction reaching the public ear via the sensation-mongers, a few hours later, it was taken up in its amended form and bandied about the coffee houses and street-corner gatherings until it finally lost all proportions, and at nine o’clock, precisely, was guilty of sending an old gentleman to bed, on the outskirts of the city, under the conviction that Governor Brownlow had been murdered by the Ku-Klux.
But though for twenty hours her streets had flowed with lava tides of that wild element of which mobs are made, and whatsoever was leonine in her temperament had been appealed to by rumors of war, that rode past on every breeze, somewhere in the “wee sma’ hours ayont the twal,” the last star had paled in the news’ firmament without witnessing anything more tragical than may be found among the occurrences related in this chapter, and the tired city slept.