Reconstruction

by Brooks D. Simpson

  Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Demo­crat. The man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln was a Dem­ocrat. Every man that sympathized with the assassin—every man glad that the noblest President ever elected was assassinated, was a Democrat. Every man that wanted the privilege of whipping another man to make him work for him for nothing and pay him with lashes on his naked back, was a Democrat. Every man that raised bloodhounds to pursue human beings was a Democrat. Every man that clutched from shrieking, shuddering, crouching mothers, babes from their breasts, and sold them into slavery, was a Democrat. Every man that impaired the credit of the United States, every man that swore we would never pay the bonds, every man that swore we would never redeem the greenbacks, every maligner of his country’s credit, every calumniator of his country’s honor, was a Democrat. Every man that resisted the draft, every man that hid in the bushes and shot at Union men simply because they were endeavoring to enforce the laws of their country, was a Democrat. Every man that wept over the corpse of slavery was a Democrat. Every man that cursed Abraham Lincoln because he issued the Proclamation of Emancipation—the grandest paper since the Declaration of Independence—every one of them was a Democrat. Every man that denounced the soldiers that bared their breasts to the storms of shot and shell for the honor of America and for the sacred rights of man, was a Democrat. Every man that wanted an uprising in the North, that wanted to release the rebel prisoners that they might burn down the homes of Union soldiers above the heads of their wives and children, while the brave husbands, the heroic fathers, were in the front fighting for the honor of the old flag, every one of them was a Democrat. I am not through yet. Every man that believed this glorious nation of ours is a confederacy, every man that believed the old banner carried by our fathers over the fields of the Revolution; the old flag carried by our fathers over the fields of 1812; the glorious old banner carried by our brothers over the plains of Mexico; the sacred banner carried by our brothers over the cruel fields of the South, simply stood for a contract, simply stood for an agreement, was a Democrat. Every man who believed that any State could go out of the Union at its pleasure, every man that believed the grand fabric of the American Government could be made to crumble instantly into dust at the touch of treason, was a Democrat. Every man that helped to burn orphan asylums in New York, was a Democrat; every man that tried to fire the city of New York, although he knew that thousands would perish, and knew that the great serpent of flame leaping from buildings would clutch children from their mothers’ arms—every wretch that did it was a Democrat. Recollect it! Every man that tried to spread smallpox and yellow fever in the North, as the instrumentalities of civilized war, was a Democrat. Soldiers, every scar you have on your heroic bodies was given you by a Democrat. Every scar, every arm that is lacking, every limb that is gone, is a souvenir of a Democrat. I want you to recollect it. Every man that was the enemy of human liberty in this country was a Democrat. Every man that wanted the fruit of all the heroism of all the ages to turn to ashes upon the lips—every one was a Democrat.

  I am a Republican. I will tell you why: This is the only free Government in the world. The Republican party made it so. The Republican party took the chains from four millions of people. The Republican party, with the wand of progress, touched the auction-block and it became a schoolhouse. The Republican party put down the Rebellion, saved the nation, kept the old banner afloat in the air, and declared that slavery of every kind should be extirpated from the face of this continent. What more? I am a Republican because it is the only free party that ever existed. It is a party that has a platform as broad as humanity, a platform as broad as the human race, a party that says you shall have all the fruit of the labor of your hands, a party that says you may think for yourself, a party that says, no chains for the hands, no fetters for the soul.

  I am a Republican because the Republican party says this country is a Nation, and not a confederacy. I am here in Indiana to speak, and I have as good a right to speak here as though I had been born on this stand—not because the State flag of Indiana waves over me—I would not know it if I should see it. You have the same right to speak in Illinois, not because the State flag of Illinois waves over you, but because that banner, rendered sacred by the blood of all the heroes, waves over you and me. I am in favor of this being a Nation. Think of a man gratifying his entire ambition in the State of Rhode Island. We want this to be a Nation, and you cannot have a great, grand, splendid people without a great, grand, splendid country. The great plains, the sublime mountains, the great rushing, roaring rivers, shores lashed by two oceans, and the grand anthem of Niagara, mingle and enter, into the character of every American citizen, and make him or tend to make him a great and grand character. I am for the Republican party because it says the Government has as much right, as much power, to protect its citizens at home as abroad. The Republican party does not say that you have to go away from home to get the protection of the Government. The Democratic party says the Government cannot march its troops into the South to protect the rights of the citizens. It is a lie. The Government claims the right, and it is conceded that the Government has the right, to go to your house, while you are sitting by your fireside with your wife and children about you, and the old lady knitting, and the cat playing with the yarn, and everybody happy and serene—the Government claims the right to go to your fireside and take you by force and put you into the army; take you down to the valley of the shadow of hell, put you by the ruddy, roaring guns, and make you fight for your flag. Now, that being so, when the war is over and your country is victorious, and you go back to your home, and a lot of Democrats want to trample upon your rights, I want to know if the Government that took you from your fireside and made you fight for it, I want to know if it is not bound to fight for you. The flag that will not protect its protectors is a dirty rag that contaminates the air in which it waves. The government that will not defend its defenders is a disgrace to the nations of the world. I am a Republican because the Republican party says, “We will protect the rights of American citizens at home, and if necessary we will march an army into any State to protect the rights of the humblest American citizen in that State.” I am a Republican because that party allows me to be free—allows me to do my own thinking in my own way. I am a Republican because it is a party grand enough and splendid enough and sublime enough to invite every human being in favor of liberty and progress to fight shoulder to shoulder for the advancement of mankind. It invites the Methodist, it invites the Catholic, it invites the Presbyterian and every kind of sectarian; it invites the Freethinker; it invites the infidel, provided he is in favor of giving to every other human being every chance and every right that he claims for himself. I am a Republican, I tell you. There is room in the Republican air for every wing; there is room on the Republican sea for every sail. Republicanism says to every man: “Let your soul be like an eagle; fly out in the great dome of thought, and question the stars for yourself.” But the Democratic party says; “Be blind owls, sit on the dry limb of a dead tree, and hoot only when that party says hoot.”

  What is the next question? The next question is, will we protect the Union men in the South? I tell you the white Union men have suffered enough. It is a crime in the Southern States to be a Republican. It is a crime in every Southern State to love this country, to believe in the sacred rights of men.

  The colored people have suffered enough. For more than two hundred years they have suffered the fabled torments of the damned; for more than two hundred years they worked and toiled without reward, bending, in the burning sun, their bleeding backs; for more than two hundred years, babes were torn from the breasts of mothers, wives from husbands, and every human tie broken by the cruel hand of greed; for more than two hundred years they were pursued by hounds, beaten with clubs, burned with fire, bound with chains; two hundred years of toil, of agony, of tears; two hundred years of hope deferred; two hundred years of gloom and shadow and darkness and blackness; two hundred
years of supplication, of entreaty; two hundred years of infinite outrage, without a moment of revenge.

  The colored people have suffered enough. They were and are our friends. They are the friends of this country, and, cost what it may, they must be protected.

  There was not during the whole Rebellion a single negro that was not our friend. We are willing to be reconciled to our Southern brethren when they will treat our friends as men. When they will be just to the friends of this country; when they are in favor of allowing every American citizen to have his rights—then we are their friends. We are willing to trust them with the Nation when they are the friends of the Nation. We are willing to trust them with liberty when they believe in liberty. We are willing to trust them with the black man when they cease riding in the darkness of night, (those masked wretches,) to the hut of the freedman, and notwithstanding the prayers and supplications of his family, shoot him down; when they cease to consider the massacre of Hamburg as a Democratic triumph, then, I say, we will be their friends, and not before.

  Now, my friends, thousands of the Southern people and thousands of the Northern Democrats are afraid that the negroes are going to pass them in the race of life. And, Mr. Democrat, he will do it unless you attend to your business. The simple fact that you are white cannot save you always. You have to be industrious, honest, to cultivate a sense of justice. If you do not the colored race will pass you, as sure as you live. I am for giving every man a chance. Anybody that can pass me is welcome.

  I believe, my friends, that the intellectual domain of the future, as the land used to be in the State of Illinois, is open to pre-emption. The fellow that gets a fact first, that is his; that gets an idea first, that is his. Every round in the ladder of fame, from the one that touches the ground to the last one that leans against the shining summit of human ambition, belongs to the foot that gets upon it first.

  Mr. Democrat, (I point down because they are nearly all on the first round of the ladder) if you can not climb, stand one side and let the deserving negro pass.

  I must tell you one thing. I have told it so much, and you have all heard it fifty times, but I am going to tell it again because I like it. Suppose there was a great horse race here to-day, free to every horse in the world, and to all the mules, and all the scrubs, and all the donkeys.

  At the tap of the drum they come to the line, and the judges say “it is a go.” Let me ask you, what does the blooded horse, rushing ahead, with nostrils distended, drinking in the breath of his own swiftness, with his mane flying like a banner of victory, with his veins standing out all over him, as if a network of life had been cast upon him—with his thin neck, his high withers, his tremulous flanks—what does he care how many mules and donkeys run on that track? But the Democratic scrub, with his chuckle-head and lop-ears, with his tail full of cockle-burrs, jumping high and short, and digging in the ground when he feels the breath of the coming mule on his cockle-burr tail, he is the chap that jumps the track and says, “I am down on mule equality.”

  September 21, 1876

  INTIMIDATION AT THE POLLS:

  GEORGIA, OCTOBER 1876

  David Brundage to Ulysses S. Grant

  ALLOW ME to inform you of the Stupendous frauds committed at the Polls on wednesday the 4th inst—The Republicans could undoubtedly carry the Elections in this part of the State, if protected even by the Law, but the Law is dormant, & not executed. On the day of Election, a crowd of white men Stood at the Polls & knocked, kicked, pushed, pulled hair & Stuck pins & Small bladed knives in the col. voters, and would not let a col man vote unless he casted a Democratic ticket. The managers of the Polls would throw down the Republican tickets openly, or tear them up, & put in Democratic ones, and every Election day in Milledgeville, the old State Capital (or Polls) is filled with army Rifles & Shot Guns well charged. One time at the Polls, a difficulty Started between the Sheriff & a col man, but Soon Subsided. I happened to look up & Saw every window fairly darkened with cocked guns. This is the case in this Section. The Secession Democrats, are always the instigators, in every difficulty, and make it appear that it is the col man. I have known col men to be murdered in cold blood, & nothing done in the courts. Several col men have been Slaughtered outright by ku­kluxism, and Still nothing done. Now the col people are trying to assert their rights at the Ballot Box, which is about the only priviledge they have, & the kuklux are threatening them with death and the lash. At one time through this Section young drunken and unprincipled white men commenced lashing white men, and not long afterwards, the Roads were guarded & Some of the kuklux, left for the Spiritual world, & the matter Stoped, but threatened again. Tis true, I am Southern born but proud to Say that my tender age prevented me from raising arms against the United States Government. I have been acting as a justice of the Peace for Several years, & always respected my oath, regardless of color. Here recently a great many of the white people & all the col in the counties Hancock Washington & Baldwin, run me for Senator, & I fairly beat the race, but cheated out of it. nearly all the white people turned against me because the col people Supported me, & the managers of the Election changed tickets right before my eyes. I tried to get the Sheriff to Stop the Election but to no use. I had to Submit & If I commence a contest, my life is at Stake. Mr Peter O’Neal c run for Representative, & Mr Johnathan Norcross, for Governor & all treated in like manner. This is general evil through the recent Georgia Elections So far as I have heard. The Secession Democrats are So enraged that they openly declare to kill the man that the col people elect, & a man is in danger all the time. I do not See how matters can Stand under Such Circumstances. Some of the managers of the Polls are prominent church members, and dont Show any remorse of conscience, in Swearing to emphatical falsehoods. This is the State of matters without any exageration. About three years ago I wrote to you about kuklux depredations, but never heard from you, however if they Start again I will get Several to join me, & try to Stop them with powder & Ball. This the only thing that did Stop them. Unless the Polls are Supported by troops, at the Presidencial Election I do not See how the col man will make out. one third of them dont go to the Polls from fear, & a great many have to remain at home, because the white man will turn him off, to keep his crop, or wages. This is often the case, & no chance to gain any thing in the Courts. No chance for the poor col man. The poverty Striken white men are the most eager to raise difficulties with the col man, & Still cling to the Secession Democrats, as they did in the Rebellion. They will not hear reason, for their minds are inflated with poisonous Secession hatred. The col People as a universal thing, are obedient kind & industrious, and their complaint, which is true, they Cant get their wages even by Law—for the Courts will not do but little for them. A great many poor white men in this Country are more dependent than the col man, & yet they are So narrow minded, they will Sustain the Secession Democrats against their own interest. The recently elected men, threaten to Scale the Exemption Laws which will undoubtedly be the Case. Unless Hays & Wheeler are elected we poor class of people in the South are ‘gone up.’ I close. Please burn this. Write me a few words of advice.

  October 14, 1876

  THE ELECTION RESULTS:

  OHIO, NOVEMBER 1876

  Rutherford B. Hayes:

  Diary, November 12, 1876

  Sunday, November 12.—The news this morning is not conclusive. The headlines of the morning papers are as follows:—The News, “Nip and Tuck”; “Tuck has it”; “The Mammoth National Doubt”;—and the Herald heads its news column, “Which?” But to my mind the figures indicate that Florida has been carried by the Democrats. No doubt both fraud and violence intervened to produce the result. But the same is true in many Southern States.

  We shall, the fair-minded men of the country will, history will hold that the Republicans were by fraud, violence, and intimidation, by a nullification of the Fifteenth Amendment, deprived of the victory which they fairly won. But we must, I now think, prepare ourselves to accept the inevitable. I do it with
composure and cheerfulness. To me the result is no personal calamity.

  I would like the opportunity to improve the civil service. It seems to me I could do more than any Democrat to put Southern affairs on a sound basis. I do not apprehend any great or permanent injury to the financial affairs of the country by the victory of the Democrats. The hard-money wing of the party is at the helm. Supported, as they should be and will be, in all wise measures, by the great body of the Republican party, nothing can be done to impair the national credit or debase the national currency. On this, as on all important subjects, the Republicans will still hold a commanding position.

  We are in a minority in the Electoral Colleges; we lose the Administration. But in the former free States—the States that were always loyal—we are still in a majority. We carry eighteen of the twenty-two and have two hundred thousand majority of the popular vote. In the old slave States, if the recent Amendments were cheerfully obeyed, if there had been neither violence nor intimidation nor other improper interference with the rights of the colored people, we should have carried enough Southern States to have held the country and to have secured a decided popular majority in the nation. Our adversaries are in power, but they are supported by a minority only of the lawful voters of the country. A fair election in the South would undoubtedly have given us a large majority of the electoral votes, and a decided preponderance of the popular vote.