428.3–4 Frederick Douglass . . . New York City] Douglass gave this speech at a Republican campaign meeting held at the Cooper Institute on September 25, 1872.
429.7 writing to Mr. Sumner] On July 11, 1872, twenty-four “citizens of color” wrote to Senator Charles Sumner from Washington, D.C., and asked “the purest and best friend of our race” for his opinion on the presidential election. Sumner, already known for his harsh public denunciations of Grant, replied on July 29 in an open letter addressed to “Colored Citizens” in which he endorsed Greeley for the first time.
429.18–19 colored citizens . . . Faneuil Hall] Douglass had addressed a meeting of black voters held in Faneuil Hall in Boston on September 5, 1872.
430.38–39 words of the leading traitor] Edwards Pierrepont (see Biographical Notes), an earlier speaker at the meeting, had quoted from a speech made by Jefferson Davis at Augusta, Georgia, on May 26, 1872, in which Davis said: “You know me only as the representative of your cause. That cause is dear to me—more precious even than life, and I glory in its remembrance.”
431.9–10 three thousand . . . Pentecost.] See Acts 2:1–41.
431.17 Prodigal Son] See Luke 15:11–32.
433.24 Mr. Black] Jeremiah S. Black (1810–1883) was a justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court, 1851–57, attorney general, March 1857–December 1860, and secretary of state, December 1860–March 1861. Black appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court as a private attorney in numerous cases, including Ex parte Milligan and the Slaughterhouse Cases, and drafted President Johnson’s veto of the first Reconstruction Act.
434.33 The Chairman] Luther R. Marsh (1813–1902) was a successful New York attorney and occasional orator.
435.3 James S. Pike: South Carolina Prostrate] This was the first in a series of six reports from South Carolina that Pike published in the New-York Tribune in 1873; the remaining articles appeared on April 8, 10, 11, 12, and 19. The series was collected in The Prostrate State: South Carolina Under Negro Government (1874).
436.7–8 George McDuffie and Robert Y. Hayne] McDuffie (1790–1851) was a congressman from South Carolina, 1821–34, governor, 1834–36, and a senator, 1842–46. Hayne (1791–1839) was a senator from South Carolina, 1823–32, and governor, 1832–34.
436.10–11 Jefferson . . . God is just.”] Cf. Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), Query XVIII, “Manners”: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
439.6–7 famous schooner Wanderer] The Wanderer illegally landed four hundred African slaves on the Georgia coast in November 1858.
441.20 rejected constitutionally] The Senate failed to ratify the Santo Domingo annexation treaty by a vote of 28–28 on June 30, 1870.
THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, 1873–1877
449.2–3 Levi Nelson . . . Colfax Massacre] Levi Nelson and Benjamin Brim testified at the trial of nine white men facing federal conspiracy charges for their role in a massacre committed in Grant Parish, Louisiana, on Easter Sunday in 1873. Grant Parish was formed in north-central Louisiana in 1869 out of portions of two existing parishes. It was named after the newly inaugurated president, and Colfax, the parish seat, was named after the new vice president. The 1872 elections in Louisiana, which produced rival governors, lieutenant governors, and legislatures at the state level, also resulted in rival claimants to local offices in Grant Parish. On March 25, 1873, the Republican parish judge and sheriff took possession of the courthouse in Colfax, which was soon guarded by an improvised militia of black residents. Christopher Columbus Nash (1838–1922), the Fusionist sheriff, formed a posse to seize the courthouse, and entered Colfax on April 13, 1873, with about 140 men, about half of them Confederate veterans. Equipped with superior firearms and a small cannon, the white posse drove about 150 poorly armed black militiamen from their defensive positions, set fire to the courthouse, and began killing prisoners. At least sixty-two, and possibly as many as eighty-one, African Americans were killed in the fighting and subsequent massacre. Three members of the white posse were killed in the fighting; two of them may have been fatally wounded by fire from their own side. James R. Beckwith (1838–1912), the U.S. attorney for Louisiana, brought nine defendants—William Cruikshank, Austin P. Gibbons, John Hadnot, Tom Hickman, Bill Irwin, Alfred Lewis, Donas and Prudhomme Lemoine, and Clement Penn—to trial in New Orleans on February 23, 1874, charged with conspiring to violate the Enforcement Act of 1870. The trial ended on March 16, with the acquittal of Lewis and a hung jury regarding the remaining defendants. Beckwith retried the case from May 18 to June 10, and won convictions against Cruikshank, Hadnot, and Irwin, who faced possible sentences of ten years in prison. William B. Woods (1824–1887), the federal circuit court judge who tried the case, rejected motions for a new trial on June 27, but the same day Joseph P. Bradley (1813–1892), the supreme court justice assigned to the Fifth Circuit, overturned the verdicts. The case went on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously upheld Bradley’s decision on March 27, 1876. In his opinion for the Court, Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite (1816–1888) severely limited the reach of the Enforcement Act by ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not protect the right to assemble, to bear arms, or to vote, nor did it protect citizens against the criminal acts of private individuals.
449.12 old man Hadnot] James Hadnot (1821–73), the state representative from Grant Parish, was fatally wounded on April 13, 1873, possibly by gunfire from his own side. His nephew, John Hadnot, was one of the Colfax defendants.
451.9 A. Tillman] Alexander Tillman (1843–1873), a black farmer, was one of the leaders of the courthouse defenders.
452.20–21 Jesse McKinney] McKinney (1834–1873), a black farmer in Grant Parish, was shot by white men on horseback in front of his wife and six-year-old son on April 5, 1873. His murder caused hundreds of African American men, women, and children to seek safety at the Colfax courthouse.
455.4 Shaw] Daniel Wesley Shaw, the white Republican sheriff of Grant Parish, had testified as a defense witness. Shaw claimed that he had been held prisoner by the black defenders of the courthouse and denied that he had authorized them to act as a posse.
456.4 Speech . . . Civil Rights Bill ] Charles Sumner had introduced a new civil rights bill in 1870, but was unable to advance it through the Senate. In December 1873 Massachusetts congressman Benjamin F. Butler (see note 345.24) introduced a version of Sumner’s bill in the House. The bill reported by Butler prohibited racial discrimination in public schools, public accommodations, public conveyances, places of amusement, and cemeteries, and allowed plaintiffs to seek damages in the federal courts.
456.22–23 grateful State . . . Fort Griswold] Fort Griswold was captured by Benedict Arnold during his raid on New London, Connecticut, on September 6, 1781.
456.36 among the black people] Elliott quotes from the text of Greene’s letter printed in History of the Republic of the United States (7 vols., 1857–64) by John Church Hamilton (1792–1882), Alexander Hamilton’s son. In the text printed in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (1961), edited by Harold C. Syrett, this phrase appears as “among the back people.”
457.6–7 his dispatch] Jackson’s report to Secretary of War James Monroe, January 9, 1815.
457.8 Mr. BECK] See note 395.35–36.
457.26–28 a State . . . declaring her neutrality] Beriah Magoffin (1815–1885), the Democratic governor of Kentucky, 1859–62, proclaimed his state’s neutrality on May 20, 1861. His neutrality policy collapsed in early September 1861 when both Confederate and Union troops entered the state.
457.36 Mr. STEPHENS] Stephens (see note 8.10–11) served in Congress as a Democrat from Georgia, 1873–82.
458.12–13 Lieber on Civil Liberty] Francis Lieber (1800–1872), On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853).
458.17–20 Natural liberty . . . American Republic] The quotation from Alexander Hamilton’s pamphlet The Farmer
Refuted (1775) appears in History of the Republic of the United States (1857–64) by John Church Hamilton (1792–1882).
458.37–459.4 Is it . . . maintained?] From a speech by Hamilton in the constitutional convention on June 29, 1787, as recorded by Robert Yates.
459.5–10 “the sacred . . . mortal power.”] From The Farmer Refuted (1775).
459.11 the Slaughter-house cases!] The cases were decided 5–4 by the Supreme Court on April 14, 1873.
461.16 Chancellor Kent] See note 216.20–26.
461.26–27 Associate Justice Miller] Samuel Miller (1816–1890) served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, 1862–90.
467.25 Mr. DAWES] Henry L. Dawes (1816–1903) was a Republican congressman from Massachusetts, 1857–75, and a senator, 1875–93.
468.3–5 Massachusetts in 1857 . . . constitution] The amendment adopted in 1857 required that new voters be able to read the Massachusetts constitution in English and write their own name.
470.20 harmless speculations in his study] Stephens was the author of A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States (2 vols., 1868–70).
470.37–39 that gentleman shocked . . . corner-stone.] See note 98.22.
471.21–24 Mr. HARRIS . . . white men alone] John T. Harris (1823–1899) was a Democratic congressman from Virginia, 1859–61 and 1871–81. During the previous day’s debate on the civil rights bill, Harris had said: “And I say there is not one gentleman upon this floor who can honestly say he really believes that the colored man is created his equal.” When Alonzo J. Ransier (1834–1882), a black congressman from South Carolina, responded by saying, “I can,” Harris replied: “Of course you can; but I am speaking to the white men of the House; and, Mr. Speaker, I do not wish to be interrupted again by him.” Later, Harris asked “every gentleman on the other side of the House” to admit they were bound to respect the prejudice “that the colored man was inferior to the white.” Ransier again objected, saying “I deny that,” and Harris responded: “I do not allow you to interrupt me. Sit down; I am talking to white men; I am talking to gentlemen.”
474.28–30 “reaped down . . . Sabaoth,”] James 5:4.
474.34–39 “Entreat me . . . and me.”] Ruth 1:16–17.
475.7 Friday last] Friday, January 16, 1874.
475.28–29 when Grant . . . on his works”] Grant successfully demanded the “unconditional and immediate surrender” of the Confederate garrison at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, on February 16, 1862.
476.38 Credit Mobilier] Crédit Mobilier, a finance company organized to pay for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, had sold stock at a discount to several senators and congressmen in 1867. An exposé by the New York Sun in 1872 led to a growing scandal that had implicated James A. Garfield, House Speaker James G. Blaine, and Vice President Schuyler Colfax.
477.36 a Chief Justice] In December 1873 Grant nominated Attorney General George H. Williams (1823–1910) to succeed Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who had died in May. Williams encountered opposition in the Senate, in part because of the use of government funds to purchase a carriage for his wife, and Grant withdrew his nomination on January 8, 1874. The next day he nominated Caleb Cushing (1800–1879), a Massachusetts attorney who had served as attorney general in the Pierce administration, 1853–57. Cushing drew opposition due to his age, and when a letter Cushing had written to Jefferson Davis in March 1861, recommending a former clerk for a position in the Confederate government, was made public, his nomination was withdrawn. On January 19 Grant nominated Morrison R. Waite (1816–1888), an Ohio attorney who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on January 21.
479.20–21 answer . . . Mr. VANCE] Robert B. Vance (1828–1899), a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, 1873–85, had spoken against the bill on January 10, 1874.
479.25 Mr. ROBBINS] William M. Robbins (1828–1905) was a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, 1873–79.
481.4–5 Charleston . . . Richmond] Black regiments were among the Union troops that occupied Charleston, South Carolina, on February 18, 1865, and that entered Richmond on April 3, 1865.
482.12 Missa Douglas] Margaret Crittenden Douglass (b. 1822), a white woman born in Washington, D.C., and raised in South Carolina, opened a school for free black children in Norfolk, Virginia, in June 1852. Douglass was arrested in May 1853 and charged with violating the state law against assembling African Americans, free or enslaved, for the purpose of teaching them to read and write. She denied having abolitionist sympathies and told the court that her motive was a wish that black children be able to read the Bible. In January 1854 Douglass was sentenced to one month in jail. She moved to Philadelphia after her release and published Educational Laws of Virginia: The Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass (1854).
484.25–26 The gentleman . . . our brave eagle.] In his speech on January 24, 1874, Robbins denounced “the leveling spirit” of “so-called universal equality men” and sarcastically suggested that the eagle be replaced as the national emblem by the crow, whose “plumage is of the favorite color, so popular with the dominant party.”
487.22–23 the warriors . . . hair’s breadth;”] See Judges 20:16.
489.19 Mr. COX] Samuel S. Cox (1824–1889) was a Democratic congressman from Ohio, 1857–65, and from New York, 1869–1873 and 1873–85.
490.6–7 civil-rights bill . . . seven years] Sumner described his bill as a supplementary measure to the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
491.34 Cardozo] Francis L. Cardozo (1836–1903), the son of a free black woman and a white man, served as secretary of state of South Carolina, 1868–72, and as state treasurer, 1872–77.
492.30 gentleman from Tennessee] Roderick R. Butler (1827–1902) was a Republican congressman from Tennessee, 1867–75 and 1887–89. In his speech on the civil rights bill on June 5, 1874, Butler said: “As to hotels, the laws regulate them much better than Congress can. The colored people do not want to eat and sleep with the whites; they want, if a hotel-keeper charges them as much as he charges the white guests, to have as good bed and as good diet, and that certainly is just and right. And I have heard of no complaint in my State. I find in traveling along the railroads that when the trains stop at the eating-houses a table is provided for the colored passengers, supplied with the same eatables and served by the same servants as the whites, and they all pay the same price, and both seem content.”
493.3–11 Mr. Brightly’s . . . or otherwise.”] Frederick C. Brightly (1812–1888), An Analytical Digest of the Laws of the United States (1858). The passage quoted by Rapier is taken from Corfield v. Coryell (1823), an opinion written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington (1762–1829) while sitting as a circuit judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
497.40 Kentucky’s chief Representative] James B. Beck (see note 395.35–36) immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1838.
499.27 Wade, Giddings, Julian] Benjamin F. Wade (1800–1878), senator from Ohio, 1851–69; Joshua R. Giddings (1795–1864), congressman from Ohio, 1838–42 and 1842–59; George W. Julian (1817–1899), congressman from Indiana, 1849–51 and 1861–71.
500.16–18 the chief . . . history of the war] Jefferson Davis sailed for Great Britain and France on January 25, 1874, and returned on June 16. His departure came shortly before the publication of Joseph E. Johnston’s Narrative of Military Operations, in which the former Confederate general strongly criticized Davis’s conduct of the war.
502.23–24 Jews could sing . . . streams] See Psalm 137.
504.28 F. F. V.’s] First Families of Virginia.
504.30–31 address one . . . white men.”] See note 471.21–22.
504.34 Duke de Broglie] Jacques Victor Albert, duc de Broglie (1821–1901), premier and foreign minister of France, 1873–74.
506.11 Mr. SLOSS] Joseph H. Sloss (1826–1911), Demo
cratic congressman from Alabama, 1871–75.
506.25–26 very prominent colored gentleman] Born in North Carolina, J. Sella Martin (1832–1876) escaped from slavery in 1856. An active abolitionist and campaigner for equal rights, he served as the pastor of the Joy Street Baptist Church in Boston and of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., before moving to Louisiana in 1870.
506.27–29 McEnery government . . . the President] see Chronology, November 1872–January 1873. The committee met with Grant on December 19, 1872.
507.33–34 appoint members . . . foreign courts] In 1869 Grant appointed Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett (1833–1908), the principal of the Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth, as American minister to Haiti. Bassett, the first African American to hold a diplomatic post, served until 1877.
509.19–20 rule in hell . . . heaven.] Cf. John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, line 263.
509.25 imperium in imperio] A sovereignty within a sovereignty.
509.27–28 summary massacre . . . Gibson county, Tennessee] A white mob broke into the county jail in Trenton, Tennessee, on August 26, 1874, removed sixteen black men who had been accused of plotting an armed uprising against the local white population, and murdered at least five of them. Federal prosecutors later charged fourteen men in connection with the killings, but were unable to secure any convictions.
509.29–31 cold-blooded murder . . . “White Leaguers.”] Members of the White League murdered six white Republicans, including a parish tax collector, registrar, and justice of the peace, near Coushatta, Louisiana, on August 30, 1874. The White League also murdered at least five black men in and around Coushatta, August 25–31.
Reconstruction Page 86
