Reconstruction

by Brooks D. Simpson

  Fortunately, to re-enslave the millions set free is a task they can never accomplish; another St. Domingo tragedy, on a far more awful scale, would follow the attempt. It is the consciousness of this fact, and that their former chattels are now constitutionally enfranchised American citizens, that makes them writhe in agony, gnaw their tongues for pain, and in their madness resolve that the ballot in the hand of the negro shall be unavailing for his protection, and he reduced as near as possible to a state of serfdom; all loyal white men espousing his cause to be regarded and treated as having no rights that rebels at heart are bound to respect. At this hour the blood of thousands of unoffending colored persons—shot down like wild beasts—is upon their souls, crying to Heaven for that divine retribution from which the guilty may not hope to escape. Abject submission to their usurping sway is essential to personal safety, reciprocal social consideration, political preferment, official respect, business success and religious intercourse. With them the end sanctifies the means, however desperate and bloody; and that end is first, midst, last, and always, “A WHITE MAN’S GOVERNMENT”—tantamount to the old slaveholding oligarchic supremacy. In their lawless and defiant White League organizations they are accurately described by General Sheridan (himself no sentimentalist, and without any sympathetic leaning either toward negroes or Indians) as “a banditti.”

  This faithful but repulsive portraiture is drawn solely in the interest of liberty and equal rights, though painful the task; not to gratify personal, partisan or sectional ill-will. It no more implies an unkind or an uncharitable spirit, on the part of the limner, than when the ancient prophet declared—“This people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. They lay wait, as he that setteth snares, they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; they overpass the deeds of the wicked. O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not. Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers!”

  That from such a class the wildest outcries and the fiercest threats should be heard against President Grant and General Sheridan for what they have done to maintain order in Louisiana, and to make it possible for a legitimate Republican form of Government to exist on its soil, is as inevitable a sequence as was the demoniacal cry of old, “Why hast thou come to torment us before the time?” As if the time had not fully come for the torment! Surely, that which instigates to mischief is to be held accountable for a breach of the peace; and not the power which seeks to preserve order.

  Nor is it surprising that the Democratic organs and leaders at the North should re-echo the wrathful reproaches and defamatory accusations flung by their old Southern allies against Grant and Sheridan in this matter of Louisiana. To the extent of their daring they have always been the servile tools of “the lords of the lash,” ready to sanction all their vile machinations for the perpetuation of negro slavery, and to go with them to the verge of rebellion. Nay, if when that outbreak came a Democratic Administration had been in power, Jefferson Davis and his myrmidons would have been allowed to succeed in their treasonable aims. Northern Democracy was never known to rejoice in any loyal victory: it opposed every measure essential to the preservation of the Federal and the overthrow of the Rebel Government, it contemplated the massacre at Fort Pillow and the horrors of Andersonville with iron-hearted indifference; it raved at the enlistment of colored soldiers and the act of emancipation; it opposed all constitutional amendments to make that act effective; and it was as vociferous and unprincipled in branding Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant and usurper, as it is now in applying the same libelous epithets to Ulysses S. Grant. In one of his latest and most solemnly recorded testimonies that noble patriot and lamented philanthropist, Gerrit Smith, said—and being dead, he yet speaketh:

  “Better anything, better everything, than the ruin that would befall our country from the ascendency of that party which sympathized with the rebels in the late rebellion and with their malignant purpose to perpetuate slavery; and which still cherishes its traditional hatred of the black man. The slaughter of the innocent still going on at the South is due to this hatred, as was all Ku Kluxism, as was the negro murdering mob of 1863 in New York, and as was every one of the pro-slavery mobs that disgraced the North. Whether the outbreak against our colored brethren be at the North or at the South, the Democratic party is its inspiration, its soul and sustenance.”

  But, while neither truth nor fair dealing toward President Grant is to be looked for from such quarters, it is amazing to see what a “Bull Run panic” has seized upon the Republican party in consequence of such artful clamors, and to find in leading Republican journals the worst possible construction placed upon the action of the President, as though he were plotting for military dictatorship and, consequently, the overthrow of our free institutions! No worse impeachment of his motives and purposes has been made by any Southern rebel sheet. The man who conducted the nation to victory in the interest of Liberty and Union, wearing his laurels with the utmost modesty; whose magnanimity toward the conquered has no parallel in warfare; whose fidelity to his official trust was so conspicuous during his first term as to insure his renomination for the Presidency by acclamation of the National Republican Convention, and his election by the American people by an overwhelming vote; who has assiduously sought the repose and security of all classes at the South, using only the semblance of military power, and even then, with great reluctance and extreme circumspection; who, to avoid the heavy responsibility resting upon him, has in vain invoked the action of Congress, session after session, and therefore been compelled to act according to his best judgment by the oath exacted of him; who may or may not have erred in that judgment, as shall hereafter appear when all the facts are obtained; whose position has been one of the most trying conceivable, fairly entitling him, if not to commiseration, at least to a decent regard for his office, generous consideration and honorable treatment:—this man is now sweepingly denounced by Republican journals, in hot response to the allegations of White Leaguers and their Northern Democratic supporters, as guilty of the most high-handed usurpation, and as acting despotically in the organization of a State Legislature to the furtherance of his own ambitious ends. He has been hastily and impetuously condemned, without waiting to know the real state of the case or giving him a chance to be heard in self-defence. The version of the affair at New Orleans by the White Leaguers and their accomplices is accepted as truthful, and their malignant assault upon the President indorsed as truly patriotic. This is a strange mingling of injustice and infatuation. No fair-minded man, who has not for the time being lost his head, believes that either President Grant or Gen. Sheridan has intentionally usurped powers with which he is not entrusted, or that he has acted otherwise than as his official duty demanded for the general welfare, according to his most patriotic convictions under the most trying circumstances.

  Be it so that both have seriously erred. “To err is human,” but it is compatible with the noblest intentions; and where these dominate, flagrant designs against the rights of the few or the many are not to be imputed. Whatever blame is to be cast, let it rest upon Congress for not legislating for the government of Louisiana, as repeatedly urged by the President to do so.

  “The dangers of the days but newly gone,

  (Whose memory is written on the earth

  With yet appearing blood,) and the examples

  Of every minute’s instance, (present now,)

  Have put us in these ill-beseeming arms:

  Not to break peace, nor any branch of it;

  But to establish here a peace indeed,

  Concurring both in name and quality.”

  Yours, against all injustice, usurpation and tyranny,

  WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

  Boston, Jan. 12, 1875.

  Boston Journal, January 13, 1875

  WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 1875

  Ulysses S. Grant:

  Message to the Senat
e on Louisiana

  EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 13, 1875.

  To the Senate of the United States:

  I have the honor to make the following answer to a Senate resolution of the 8th instant, asking for information as to any interference by any military officer or any part of the Army of the United States with the organization or proceedings of the general assembly of the State of Louisiana, or either branch thereof; and also inquiring in regard to the existence of armed organizations in that State hostile to the government thereof and intent on overturning such government by force.

  To say that lawlessness, turbulence, and bloodshed have characterized the political affairs of that State since its reorganization under the reconstruction acts is only to repeat what has become well known as a part of its unhappy history; but it may be proper here to refer to the election of 1868, by which the Republican vote of the State, through fraud and violence, was reduced to a few thousands, and the bloody riots of 1866 and 1868, to show that the disorders there are not due to any recent causes or to any late action of the Federal authorities.

  Preparatory to the election of 1872 a shameful and undisguised conspiracy was formed to carry that election against the Republicans, without regard to law or right, and to that end the most glaring frauds and forgeries were committed in the returns, after many colored citizens had been denied registration and others deterred by fear from casting their ballots.

  When the time came for a final canvass of the votes, in view of the foregoing facts William P. Kellogg, the Republican candidate for governor, brought suit upon the equity side of the United States circuit court for Louisiana, and against Warmoth and others, who had obtained possession of the returns of the election, representing that several thousand voters of the State had been deprived of the elective franchise on account of their color, and praying that steps might be taken to have said votes counted and for general relief. To enable the court to inquire as to the truth of these allegations, a temporary restraining order was issued against the defendants, which was at once wholly disregarded and treated with contempt by those to whom it was directed. These proceedings have been widely denounced as an unwarrantable interference by the Federal judiciary with the election of State officers; but it is to be remembered that by the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States the political equality of colored citizens is secured, and under the second section of that amendment, providing that Congress shall have power to enforce its provisions by appropriate legislation, an act was passed on the 31st of May, 1870, and amended in 1871, the object of which was to prevent the denial or abridgment of suffrage to citizens on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and it has been held by all the Federal judges before whom the question has arisen, including Justice Strong, of the Supreme Court, that the protection afforded by this amendment and these acts extends to State as well as other elections. That it is the duty of the Federal courts to enforce the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof is too clear for controversy.

  Section 15 of said act, after numerous provisions therein to prevent an evasion of the fifteenth amendment, provides that the jurisdiction of the circuit court of the United States shall extend to all cases in law or equity arising under the provisions of said act and of the act amendatory thereof. Congress seems to have contemplated equitable as well as legal proceedings to prevent the denial of suffrage to colored citizens; and it may be safely asserted that if Kellogg’s bill in the above-named case did not present a case for the equitable interposition of the court, that no such case can arise under the act. That the courts of the United States have the right to interfere in various ways with State elections so as to maintain political equality and rights therein, irrespective of race or color, is comparatively a new, and to some seems to be a startling, idea, but it results as clearly from the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution and the acts that have been passed to enforce that amendment as the abrogation of State laws upholding slavery results from the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. While the jurisdiction of the court in the case of Kellogg vs. Warmoth and others is clear to my mind, it seems that some of the orders made by the judge in that and the kindred case of Antoine were illegal. But while they are so held and considered, it is not to be forgotten that the mandate of his court had been contemptuously defied, and they were made while wild scenes of anarchy were sweeping away all restraint of law and order. Doubtless the judge of this court made grave mistakes; but the law allows the chancellor great latitude, not only in punishing those who contemn his orders and injunctions, but in preventing the consummation of the wrong which he has judicially forbidden. Whatever may be said or thought of those matters, it was only made known to me that process of the United States court was resisted, and as said act especially provides for the use of the Army and Navy when necessary to enforce judicial process arising thereunder, I considered it my duty to see that such process was executed according to the judgment of the court.

  Resulting from these proceedings, through various controversies and complications, a State administration was organized with William P. Kellogg as governor, which, in the discharge of my duty under section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution, I have recognized as the government of the State.

  It has been bitterly and persistently alleged that Kellogg was not elected. Whether he was or not is not altogether certain, nor is it any more certain that his competitor, McEnery, was chosen. The election was a gigantic fraud, and there are no reliable returns of its result. Kellogg obtained possession of the office, and in my opinion has more right to it than his competitor.

  On the 20th of February, 1873, the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate made a report in which they say they were satisfied by testimony that the manipulation of the election machinery by Warmoth and others was equivalent to 20,000 votes; and they add that to recognize the McEnery government “would be recognizing a government based upon fraud, in defiance of the wishes and intention of the voters of the State.” Assuming the correctness of the statements in this report (and they seem to have been generally accepted by the country), the great crime in Louisiana, about which so much has been said, is that one is holding the office of governor who was cheated out of 20,000 votes, against another whose title to the office is undoubtedly based on fraud and in defiance of the wishes and intentions of the voters of the State.

  Misinformed and misjudging as to the nature and extent of this report, the supporters of McEnery proceeded to displace by force in some counties of the State the appointees of Governor Kellogg, and on the 13th of April, in an effort of that kind, a butchery of citizens was committed at Colfax, which in bloodthirstiness and barbarity is hardly surpassed by any acts of savage warfare.

  To put this matter beyond controversy I quote from the charge of Judge Woods, of the United States circuit court, to the jury in the case of The United States vs. Cruikshank and others, in New Orleans in March, 1874. He said:

  In the case on trial there are many facts not in controversy. I proceed to state some of them in the presence and hearing of counsel on both sides; and if I state as a conceded fact any matter that is disputed, they can correct me.

  After stating the origin of the difficulty, which grew out of an attempt of white persons to drive the parish judge and sheriff, appointees of Kellogg, from office, and their attempted protection by colored persons, which led to some fighting, in which quite a number of negroes were killed, the judge states:

  Most of those who were not killed were taken prisoners. Fifteen or sixteen of the blacks had lifted the boards and taken refuge under the floor of the court-house. They were all captured. About thirty-seven men were taken prisoners. The number is not definitely fixed. They were kept under guard until dark. They were led out, two by two, and shot. Most of the men were shot to death. A few were wounded, not mortally, and by pretending to be dead were afterwards, during the night, able to make their escape. Among them was
the Levi Nelson named in the indictment.

  The dead bodies of the negroes killed in this affair were left unburied until Tuesday, April 15, when they were buried by a deputy marshal and an officer of the militia from New Or­leans. These persons found fifty-nine dead bodies. They showed pistol-shot wounds, the great majority in the head, and most of them in the back of the head. In addition to the fifty-nine dead bodies found, some charred remains of dead bodies were discovered near the court-house. Six dead bodies were found under a warehouse, all shot in the head but one or two, which were shot in the breast.

  The only white men injured from the beginning of these troubles to their close were Hadnot and Harris. The court-house and its contents were entirely consumed.

  There is no evidence that anyone in the crowd of whites bore any lawful warrant for the arrest of any of the blacks. There is no evidence that either Nash or Cazabat, after the affair, ever demanded their offices, to which they had set up claim, but Register continued to act as parish judge and Shaw as sheriff.