All the misery that had accrued from the war, the families that had been sundered; the blood of loved ones that had watered the various battle-fields of the South, and the bones of beloved kindred that lay whitening there; the numerous sacrifices of wealth, family, and social position that had been made, the property lost and destroyed; the general stagnation and prostration of business, and the feeling of dread and insecurity that followed, were all attributed to the rule of the republican North.
There were mutterings of revenge and breathings of threats and slaughter against the race that had just been raised up out of bondage. Slavery, the former bane and curse of this country, was already dead. Its putrid carcass was no longer of the material things of earth, but its ghostly spirit still stalked abroad among its mourners to keep alive the memory of its wicked example in the minds of those who, born and reared in the folds of its garments, and nurtured at its breast, could not cast aside their early prejudices and banish from their hearts, its former evil influences. They no longer remembered that “the way of the Lord is strength to the upright,” and that “destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.” Thousands of misguided and misdirected men cherished in their bosoms a spirit of animosity toward those who had aided with their blood and money in the liberation of the slave; and it was this very spirit of hatred which had in a manner demoralized the South and created a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity among men of capital, that proved a serious barrier to their investing in our railroads and factories, and the improvement of our lands; and, as a natural sequence, retarded our social and financial progress.
Society at this time was divided into several classes. Many who were disposed to accept and abide by the new order of things, dared not express their real sentiments from fear of social and political ostracism. Men of intelligence and education, but who had allowed the thirst for power and political preferment to absorb and swallow up the promptings of their better nature, had begun the process of gaining over to their interests the very worst elements in the social circle beneath them, with a view to carrying out their unholy designs. This class in turn, and under the management of the more intelligent, intimidated still another class and compelled them to join in a crusade that had for its objects the most infamous ends ever attempted to be gained by men. A complete connection had thus been formed, reaching from the unscrupulous leaders, to the masses, and embracing in its chain every class of society needed for the success of the general plan.
The standard bearers of the devil himself, coming direct from the lowest depths of the infernal regions, with seething vials of wrath and an earnest intention to do the bidding of their master, could scarcely have set on foot a conspiracy more damnable than this. Men, women and children were to be included in the portending storm, religion and human decency were to be outraged, the law of the land and its administrators defied, and justice scoffed at in the pillory. The ordinary safe-guards to the social well being of the community were to be swept away whenever they became inimical to the designs and objects of the unholy alliance thus formed. Men were to be banded together and bound by oaths that ignored all others and made these supreme. Where the life or liberty of one of the brotherhood was in jeopardy, he was to be saved at all hazards. Perjury and subornation of perjury were to over-ride courts of justice and render abortive, any attempt to bring these lawless bands to punishment through their instrumentality. Nothing was to be too sacred for the vandal hands of these marauders who, under the guidance of the more intelligent leaders, were to go abroad like a consuming flame, until the land, that God had made pre-eminently beautiful for the abode of peace and contentment, had been smitten with a scourge of fire and blood, and their own wicked purposes had been accomplished. It seemed as if the voice of the Lord had again spoken through the prophet Ezekiel, “say to the forest of the South, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree; the flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein.”
It was to be a dual struggle. The colored races were to be subjugated or destroyed; and the humane efforts of the Government and the Administration to restore peace and harmony, and commercial prosperity, and to give to the citizens, of every creed and color, free and equal rights was everywhere to be opposed, that the experiment of reconstruction might become a hissing and a by-word, and go forth to the world an ignominious failure.
The masses were kept in utter ignorance of these designs. They were in a state bordering upon absolute frenzy at the losses they had incurred from the fratricidal war that had left them bankrupt as individuals and communities, and with the peculiar anxiety that seems to pervade the hearts of all men, to endeavor to find some reasonable excuse for sins committed, they accepted the theories that had been so ingeniously prepared, and so carefully put before them, and became, like the clay in the hands of the potter, ready to be fashioned in any manner of form that might be decided upon by their wicked counselors.
There was an oppressive and an ominous calm in the atmosphere of the South at this time (1866) that foreboded no good. Men viewed each other with distrust. Those who seemed well-disposed at first, and who had been casting about themselves and gathering up the fragments, with a view to renewing their peaceful pursuits, suddenly abandoned their labors. Rumors of outrages upon persons and property, vague at first and without apparent authenticity, began to fill the air. Bands of armed and disguised men were said to be travelling the highways, burning the dwellings, and robbing and murdering inoffensive citizens under the most revolting circumstances. The scriptural command to “devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee,” had seemingly become obsolete among the people. It was evident that the mysterious order, the existence of which had so long been hinted at, had begun its fearful work, and under the then complexion of affairs in the nation at large, none could divine the end.
The death of President Lincoln had left the Executive, in this the hour of the nation’s great peril, in the hands of one from whom the disorganizing elements of the South had much to hope. The hand of justice was for the time being paralyzed, and the occasion seemed most opportune for the conspirators to perfect their terrible organization, and set in motion the secret machinery by which it was hoped to accomplish their base purposes.
It was evident from such facts as could be gathered relative to these outrages, that there was a distinction as to the classes of people who were the sufferers. The negroes were, of course, the objects upon which the wrath of the new order was vented; but there were numerous instances, as will be observed in the succeeding pages, where whites were scourged and murdered as well. The fact that certain citizens, who had committed no offense against the laws, were selected from the various communities, and subjected to the grossest indignities, led to inquiry as to the causes that had brought these inflictions upon them.
It was ascertained that, in the preponderance of cases, warnings had been sent to the victims demanding that they must retract their political faith, cease to side with radicals, and abandon their interest in the negro, or they must leave the country; failing in this, they were to be scourged to death.