When The Ku Klux Rode - free ebook by Eyre Damer

WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE

WHEN THE KU KLUX RODE BY EYRE DAMER NEW YORK THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912 Copyright, 1912, by The Neale Publishing Company...

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INTRODUCTION

This work is undertaken with the wish to gratify a popular desire for addition to the scant literature relating to the Reconstruction Era and that most remarkable organization of modern times—begotten of conditions unparalleled in history, conditions which can never recur, and vanishing with the emergency which created it—the militant Ku Klux Klan. Only one writer has ventured far into this field of research, which until then seemed forbidden, and in his contribution to history, fact and fiction

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CHAPTER ONE

Provisional Government In a proclamation which issued on May 10, 1865, the president of the United States declared the Civil War at an end. April 9, the date of General Lee’s surrender, was recognized as the date of the actual termination of the war. On May 29, 1865, the president, by proclamation, directed the restoration of seized private property, except “as to slaves”; and on June 24, 1865, restored commercial intercourse between all the states. Relying on the promises made by federal genera

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CHAPTER TWO

Native Government But meanwhile, having announced his policy in reorganizing the southern states, President Johnson in the summer of 1865 appointed Lewis E. Parsons, of Talladega, provisional governor of the state of Alabama, and that gentleman entered upon the discharge of his duties. There was popular approval of the appointment. Parsons was a native of New York, but long a resident and practicing lawyer in Talladega, an uncompromising Whig and Union man, possessing fine abilities and much dig

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CHAPTER THREE

Military Government March 2, 1867, after two years of peace, Congress passed over President Johnson’s veto a bill relegating the southern states to the condition of conquered provinces. A military commander was appointed and authorized to supersede civil and judicial tribunals by military courts of his own creation, with power to inflict usual punishments, excepting only death. This act was supplemented with another, of July 13, forbidding state authorities to interfere with the military command

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CHAPTER FOUR

A Grave Problem At the termination of the war between the sections, the southern people had thrust upon them for solution the gravest and most difficult problem with which the white race on this continent was ever perplexed,—how to preserve their civilization with the government operating in opposition to their efforts. After four years of warfare, the south was prostrate before the victorious people of the north, whose armies were quartered in garrisons everywhere in the surrendered territory,

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CHAPTER FIVE

The Freedmen’s Bureau Meanwhile, the Freedmen’s Bureau had been established. General Swayne promulgated an order recognizing as agents of the bureau former civil magistrates who could and would obtain endorsement of negroes; but, as a rule, carpetbaggers filled the places. Offices were opened at the county seats, where complaints of freedmen were lodged and investigations conducted. The agents prescribed a uniform division of products of the soil between planters and hands. They supervised all c

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CHAPTER SIX

Military Regulations Another cause of irritation was the offensive conduct of soldiers composing the garrisons, which provoked collisions with the more impetuous citizens. In 1865 the federal soldiers in Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, Eutaw and other towns subjected the people to very offensive regulations. Only a few examples need be mentioned as exhibiting the temper of both sides: The former soldiers of the Confederacy, having no means with which to replenish their wardrobes, wore their uniforms. Th

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Union League In pursuance of their schemes which culminated at the election in 1868, the carpetbag adventurers early in 1867 organized everywhere in Alabama branches of the Union League, a secret, oathbound political society, with all the mysticism of grips, signs, signals and passwords, national in scope, with grand national and grand state councils. Secrecy and obedience to commands were enjoined under severest penalties, including even death. Their meeting places were guarded by armed sen

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CHAPTER EIGHT

A Republican Blunder This narrative is now brought again to the point at which it digressed, the election on the constitution, but before resuming that subject a few words of comment here will not be out of place. The perfidy of Congress in imposing upon the people of Alabama, in violation of its own solemn covenant, a constitution which they had rejected in a lawful manner, was a blunder fatal to the future influence of the Republican party in Alabama. The fourteenth amendment had already injur

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CHAPTER NINE

Carpetbag Government The negroes had exercised without hindrance their new privilege of the suffrage. Their incapacity as voters was illustrated in the character of the men who assumed office after the election in 1868. In Sumter county, Tobias Lane was elected probate judge, but during the period of uncertainty when the constitution was in abeyance, concluding that congressional action respecting it would be unfavorable, he packed his carpetbag and returned to Ohio, having been one of the migra

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CHAPTER TEN

Ruinous Misgovernment Only misrule could be expected from such officials. Nothing was sacred from their greedy grasp. The most cherished institutions were debased to their purposes. In time the university was avoided by all who were unwilling to forfeit public esteem. One of the early arrivals from fruitful Ohio was Rev. A. S. Lakin. He was commissioned by Bishop Clark, of the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to organize negro churches in Alabama. He was a fanatic of the

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Whites Aroused The people of the Black Belt had borne with all possible patience the multiplied grievous wrongs recited in the foregoing pages. During the transition from master and slave to the new relations between them there was a strong disposition in both races to live in peace and harmony and make the best of their altered relations; the negroes were civil and confiding, scarcely realizing the change in their status, while the whites appreciated their good behavior during the war, when

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CHAPTER TWELVE

The Ku Klux Klan Before proceeding with the narrative, an explanation of the origin and purposes of the Ku Klux Klan may interest the reader. The facts mentioned were derived from authentic and official sources. The first den was organized in Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, in 1866, and Pulaski continued to be the centre of the order throughout its existence as an interstate organization. Six men organized the den for diversion and amusement in a community where life was dull and monotonous. T

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A Miscarriage There were some miscarriages in the operations of the klan. A memorable one of this character is recalled. A cavalcade, supposed to have started from the western side of the Warrior river, rode through Greensboro and proceeded to Marion, a distance of about thirty-five miles, presumably to take from jail and execute a negro who had, with but slight provocation, killed a white man with a paling which he wrenched from a fence. The riders visited the jail and demanded the keys. The ja

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A Convention Supplements Ku Klux Throughout the reconstruction period there was perhaps more turbulence in Choctaw than in any other county of the district, but, after all, the climax in the struggle for restoration of white supremacy was in an orderly and regularly-organized meeting of citizens, without any attempt at secrecy of proceedings. Judge J. Q. Smith, as substitute for Judge Luther R. Smith, as previously chronicled, undertook to hold the regular term of the circuit court at Butler. Th

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Foiled the Ku Klux Throughout the reconstruction period there was less lawlessness in Hale than in the counties adjoining, and overthrow of the radical administration was effected without bloodshed. January 19, 1871, in the wee sma’ hours, a cyclops and his retinue of seventy unceremoniously called at Judge Blackford’s apartments to pay their respects. The call was intended as a sort of “surprise party”; but coming events had cast their shadows before, and those shadows were as premonitions of a

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

In Tuscaloosa Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun menacingly and cursed the unarmed and def

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A Series of Tragedies In Sumter county affairs were approaching a climax when Enoch Townsend, a negro, about dark one evening waylaid and repeatedly stabbed Mr. Bryant Richardson, a planter, and fled after Mr. Richardson, despite his wounds, bravely struggled to overcome his assailant. A warrant for the arrest of the assailant issued, and officers sought him on the plantation of Dr. Choutteau. Choutteau was of French descent and migrated to Sumter from Louisiana, where, it was rumored, he had be

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Disappearance of Price Price was the most turbulent and desperate character among the radicals. One of his own ilk declared that Price had not brought with him even so much as a carpetbag, but was soon grasping everything in sight. After the trouble in Livingston, just described, he fled to Meridian, and continued there to be a disturbing element. Lauderdale county, Mississippi, of which Meridian is the capital, and Sumter county, Alabama, adjoin. A negro of Livingston went to Meridian to obtain

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CHAPTER NINETEEN

Riots in Marengo In the campaign of 1870, a former slave owner was one of the Republican candidates for office in Marengo county, and made what was regarded as an inflammatory speech to negroes gathered at Shiloh, a hamlet, situated in a section of Marengo county largely populated by negroes. A few white men were present, and between them and the candidate an angry controversy arose. The immediate result was cessation of the speechmaking and dissolution of the meeting. The orator was escorted by

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CHAPTER TWENTY

Killings and Rioting in Greene In 1870 Eutaw, the seat of government of the rich county of Greene, contained a population of 1,800 or 2,000, and prospered greatly in trade with farmers in the surrounding country. It was a typical Southern court-house town,—busy in fall and winter, almost dormant in late spring and summer. Its men were among the earliest to volunteer for service in the Confederate armies and latest to retire from that service; they were also amongst the earliest to organize resis

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Restoration of White Supremacy The state election in 1870 resulted in a victory for the Democratic and Conservative party, but there was a persistent effort to deprive that party of the fruits of victory. There was instituted on behalf of the incumbent governor and treasurer a proceeding in the chancery court to enjoin the presiding officer of the senate from counting the votes for candidates for those two offices. The legislature met November 20, and the law required that the vote be counted, w

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