Capital already began to come in from the North. One gentleman had purchased a large tract of woodland on the James River, with the plan of selling the wood on it in large quantities. Others were seeking to avail themselves of the magnificent water-power afforded by the James, just above the city. The business men were anxious for the establishment of cotton factories, and already saw, in imagination, the manufacture of the great Southern staple transferred from Northern to Southern hands. There was much talk of mineral lands in the southwestern part of the State, and real estate agencies were springing up, to aid in bringing these lands into the market. The papers announced, with many flourishes, that a Mr. Black, whom they styled “a great Scotch capitalist,” had leased the famous White House estate, on the lower James, and was about to introduce upon it the Scotch tenantry system.
It was already considered certain that the confiscation law was to be a dead letter, and wealthy Rebels seemed to have no fear of the loss of their estates. But there were harassing confiscation suits, against which there was great outcry. “Are we never to see the end of those frightful lists of libeled property which the marshal and clerk are advertising?” exclaimed one of the papers. “Are costs to be piled, like Pelion upon Ossa, upon the heads of the gentlemen of Richmond and Petersburg, who have already been pardoned? A distinguished gentleman of this city has heard from President Johnson’s own lips, language of strong indignation at the wholesale confiscation proceedings which have been instituted against certain classes of our people.” Here, as always, President Johnson’s will was to be taken as the final expression and force of law.
An indignant correspondent of one of the newspapers[[47]] brought heavy charges against the Government and one of the United States Judges:
“Major Nutt’s farm, near Alexandria, and Dr. Bowen’s farm, sold by decree of Judge John C. Underwood, are to be delivered up to Judge Underwood, Governor Pierpont, and Mr. Downey, the purchasers under the confiscation sale. It now appears that the principal property sold under Judge Underwood’s decrees, in and around Alexandria, was purchased by himself and those connected with him in the high position he holds, at a fractional part of its value only.
“Rumor says, and I have never heard it doubted, that Judge Underwood, during the rebellion, obtained permission to raise a regiment of negroes in Alexandria, which he succeeded in getting at a low price, which regiment he turned over to one of the Northern States, at a large advance, thereby realizing a large sum of money, with which he has been buying up the property confiscated by himself, under his own decree, in fee simple.”
The burnt district, comprising nearly all the business portion of the city, south and east of the capitol, was beginning to rise from its ruins. Between a fourth and a third of it would soon be better than before the conflagration, with which the Rebels signalized their abandonment of the city. But business was greatly overdone by Northern speculators who had rushed down with heavy supplies of goods immediately after the surrender. The first pressing necessities satisfied, the Virginians were too poor to trade largely.
Thanks to Northern loans, in sums ranging as high (in one or two cases, at least,) as a half-million dollars, the railroads were rapidly getting into running order, and old lines of travel were reopening. Already the Virginia Central Railroad was open to Staunton, and the Orange and Alexandria through its whole length, over a score or more of our battle-fields. Rival lines of steamers for Baltimore swarmed in the James River. Southward, Wilmington could be reached by rail, and even Charleston, a few gaps being filled by stage lines. South-westward, an unbroken line extended through Chattanooga and Atlanta—historic names—to Mobile.
As was entirely natural, a great deal of sullen bitterness was displayed against the negro. Men did not feel kindly that their old slaves should take time to consider the question of hiring with them, and should presume to haggle about wages. The least manifestation of a disposition to assert obtrusively his independence, brought the late slave into danger. Murders of negroes were occasionally reported; and the late masters made many wrathful promises to kill that were never fulfilled. Half-a-dozen times, in the course of a single day, I observed quarrels going on between negroes and white men. The latter constantly used the most violent and domineering language; the negroes several times seemed disposed to resent it.
Their schools were well attended, and the same good report of their progress was continually made. No man could fail to observe that the poor negroes were making much more earnest efforts to rise than the poor whites.