Capitol Men

by Philip Dray

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE LIBRARIANS AND ARCHIVISTS at dozens of Southern research centers have been enormously generous in responding to my requests for help and information. In particular I wish to thank Ms. Grace Cordial of the Beaufort, South Carolina, Township Library and the archivists at the South Carolina Room of the Charleston Public Library. I was also welcomed at the Charleston Historical Society; the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia; the Clemson University Library; the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson; the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and the Louisiana Room at the New Orleans Public Library.

  In Washington, I made extensive use of the Manuscripts and Periodical Reading Rooms at the Library of Congress; the Moorland-Spingarn Collection at Howard University; the National Archives (Freedmen's Bureau Records Group 105); and the National Archives branch in Beltsville, Maryland (Department of Justice Records Group 60). I also was able to perform valuable research at the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library; and the New York Public Library's Main Research Branch as well as its Prints and Pictures Collection.

  Several books were instrumental in guiding my approach to the subject of Reconstruction, including Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction by Nell Irvin Painter; Ted Tunnell's Crucible of Reconstruction: War, Radicalism, and Race in Louisiana, and Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment by Willie Lee Rose, a deservedly respected source on the wartime missionary effort in the Sea Islands. Thomas Holt's Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina During Reconstruction, and After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction, by Joel Williamson, were excellent on the era in South Carolina. Similarly, Vernon Lane Wharton's classic The Negro in Mississippi, and Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, by Nicholas Lemman, were indispensable regarding Adelbert Ames and the Mississippi of 1875. I also relied on Retreat from Reconstruction by William Gillette; Steven Hahn's A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration;, and James M. PcPherson's The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP. The administration of Ulysses'S. Grant is vividly resurrected in Grant: A Biography by William McFeely.

  Eric Foner, a professor of American history at Columbia University, has written eloquently on virtually every aspect of Reconstruction. His Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction; A Short History of Reconstruction; Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction; and America's Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War, written with Olivia Mahoney, were all essential sources.

  When it came to writing about the black congressmen of Reconstruction, I was fortunate to have a number of talented predecessors, most notably Peggy Lamson and her book The Glorious Failure: Black Congressman Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina; Sadie D. St. Clair, author of The National Career of Blanche Kelso Bruce; Okon Edet Uya's From Slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls 1839—1915, and James Haskins's colorful Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback. A valuable overview of the subject is found in William J. Simmons's Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, published in 1887. Some of my initial thoughts for embarking on this project were stimulated by Dorothy Sterling's excellent The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans.

  The manuscript was improved by technical comments from Professor Ted Tunnell of Virginia Commonwealth University.

  For their encouragement, support, and advice I wish to thank Alison Dray-Novey, Gary Gerstle, Annette Gordon-Reed, Jan Gross, David Levering Lewis, Jerry Mitchell, Stacy Schiff, Robert Sietsema, Lianne Smith, Stephanie Steiker, and Matt Weiland. I benefited from the sound professional guidance of Geri Thoma of the Elaine Markson Literary Agency and Scott Moyers of the Wylie Agency.

  At Houghton Mifflin, I am grateful for the efforts of associate editor Will Vincent, senior manuscript editor Susanna Brougham, and book designer Melissa Lotfy. Senior editor Amanda Cook's enthusiasm for the project never flagged over several drafts; she proved a gifted collaborator and was a pleasure to work with; her numerous contributions were welcome and invaluable.

  * * *

  NOTES

  PAGE Preface

  [>] Of all the images ... My discussion of this iconic portrait, titled "The First Colored Senators and Representatives," is indebted to Dorothy Sterling's description in The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans, pp. 174–75. Sixteen black men would serve in Congress during Reconstruction (1865–77); a total of twenty-two would occupy seats before the end of the nineteenth century. Nationwide there were about two thousand black elected and appointed officeholders, including a governor, several lieutenant governors, state legislators and treasurers, attorneys general, members of state supreme courts, federal customs officials, and foreign ambassadors. The most comprehensive account is in Eric Foner's Freedoms Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction.

  "The North thinks the Southern people are especially angry": Tourgee, p. 383.

  As the Virginian George Mason railed: Norfolk Journal, quoted in Fredericksburg News, June 22, 1868; see Russ, "The Negro and White Disenfranchisement During Radical Reconstruction," Journal of Negro History.

  1. Boat Thief

  [>] "An aura of doom and menace": Ebony Magazine, Nov. 2001.

  "I was born the year George Washington got president": Information from family correspondence in possession of Dolly Nash, great-granddaughter of Robert Smalls, transcribed by Jeff Berg, Robert Smalls Vertical file, Beaufort Public Library. Some accounts render Lydia's remark as "I was born the year after George Washington got president," which would be more accurate. She was born in 1790, a year after Washington took office.

  [>] In the Stono disturbance: Brown, Strain of Violence, pp. 191–92. This act, known as the Barbardian Code for its origins in Barbados, centered on controlling and subduing the slave population through a number of harsh measures, with only scant attention paid to safeguarding slaves from unjust abuse.

  [>] In 1856, at age seventeen: Smalls and his wife and daughter escaped to freedom before this amount ($800) was paid.

  [>] "Boy, you look jes like de captain": Charleston Evening Post and Charleston News & Courier, June 15–16, 1962.

  Once the whites had departed: New National Era, May 30, 1872.

  [>] "We're all free niggers now!": Lamson, Roswell H., p. 62.

  "Ahoy there" a voice from the Union ship Onward called out: Sterling, Captain of the Planter, p. 70.

  "I thought the Planter might be of some use to Uncle Abe": E. G. Parrott to Flag Officer'S. F. DuPont, May 13, 1862, in Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 171.

  "Our community was intensely agitated": Charleston Courier, May 14, 1862.

  [>] "One of the most daring and heroic adventures": Quoted in Uya, p. 15.

  [>] "What a painful instance we have here": Providence Journal, quoted in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, May 31, 1862; see Uya, pp. 17–18.

  "My paramount object in this struggle": Carroll and Noble, p. 217.

  Curiously, the militarization of blacks: For discussion of Confederate recruitment of blacks, see McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 831–38.

  [>] "War has not been waged against slavery": Quoted in Woodward, The Burden of Southern History, p. 60.

  "The significance for black people still in bondage was clear": Blacks entering Union lines often brought timely intelligence on Confederate gun emplacements and troop movements. Several ex-slaves, including Harriet Tubman, who went behind Confederate lines in South Carolina dressed as a field hand, were later honored for their service delivering these "Black Dispatches," as the reports became known.

  The pressure on Washington increased: Similar steps were taken by General John W. Phelps in Louisian
a and, in Kansas, by Senator James H. Lane, although Hunter's efforts are better known.

  [>] "Please let me have my own way on the subject of slavery": Korngold, Two Friends of Man, p. 294.

  "Nothing would please me more, and bring the race into favor": Quoted in Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings, ed. Philip Foner, p. 447.

  General Hunter acted in stages: Westwood, "Generals David Hunter and Rufus Saxton and Black Soldiers," South Carolina Historical Magazine.

  [>] "No commanding general shall do such a thing": Quoted in Goodwin, p. 435.

  "No regiment of 'fugitive slaves' has been or is organized": David Hunter to Edwin M. Stanton, June 23, 1862, quoted in Fleetwood, pp. 7–8.

  [>] "On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President": New York Tribune, Aug. 19, 1862.

  "As they waged war on us about the nigger": Diary of James T. Ayers, quoted in Franklin, pp. 234–35.

  The president worried that "the organization, equipment, and arming of negroes": Thomas and Hyman, pp. 238–39.

  In late August, when Smalls and French returned to the South: Edwin Stanton to Rufus Saxton, Aug. 22, 1862, War Department Records, National Archives; cited in Uya, p. 19.

  [>] "I had been an abolitionist too long": Higginson, p. 3.

  "Action! Action!" he enthused. "There is no time for delay": Douglass, "Men of Color, to Arms!" in Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings, ed. Philip'S. Foner, p. 525.

  [>] "The planters had boasted": Brown, The Negro in the American Rebellion, pp. 137–41.

  [>] "From the shame of degradation to the glory of military exaltation": Williams, History of the Negro Troops, pp. xiii-xiv, 67.

  For Robert Smalls, whose theft of the Planter: The historian Carter Woodson reports the following conversation between two residents of Beaufort (paraphrased here): "I tell you, Smalls is the greatest man in the world," one man stated. "Yes, he is great," his friend admitted, "but not the greatest." "Pshaw man, who's greater than Smalls?" "Why, Jesus Christ," was the reply. "Oh," said the first speaker with confidence, "Smalls is young yet." See Woodson, "Robert Smalls and His Descendants," Negro History Bulletin.

  [>] The South thrilled to the victory: New York Times, July 9, 1883. Ironclads, despite their impregnable look, were greatly weakened when subjected to a direct hit and could take on little water before sinking. An additional problem in the Union assault in which Smalls took part was that the warm Southern saltwater had fouled the ironclads' bottoms with barnacles, rendering the ships incapable of speeds greater than four knots. Heavy and cumbersome even under ideal conditions, they made easy targets for the rebel shore gunners.

  "Not by a damned sight will I beach this boat for you!": Report to the Committee on Naval Affairs, accompanying H.R. Bill 7059, House of Representatives, Jan. 23, 1883, quoted in Simmons, pp. 166–69. This report was made to secure Smalls a modest payment of $1,500 for his taking of the Planter.

  Smalls took control, somehow managing to steer: Rosbow, "The Abduction of the Planter," Crisis, Apr. 1949; see also Uya, p. 22.

  One day in December, Smalls and a black acquaintance: Philadelphia Press, Dec. 12, 1864, and Jan. 13, 1865; see also Uya, pp. 26–27.

  [>] The Carolina spring day was by all accounts: Ibid., p. 28.

  [>] "It is not on account of your complexion or race": Korngold, Two Friends of Man, p. 334.

  [>] Tears of gladness filled every eye: Uya, p. 29.

  [>] "Of all the states overwhelmed by the rebellion": New York Times, Sept. 13, 1865.

  2. A New Kind of Nation

  [>] "I have known Andy Johnson for many years": Quoted in Bowers, p. 37.

  "Mere satellites of an inferior character": Ibid., p. 30.

  [>] "Little more than warmed-over slavery": Painter, Exodusters, p. x.

  "Temporary triumph of fanaticism over divine truth": Tourgee, pp. 86–87.

  "I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie": Sterling, The Trouble They Seen, p. 7.

  [>] "Grasp of war": Donald, Liberty and Union, pp. 194–95.

  [>] The so-called Memphis Race Riot: Ryan, "The Memphis Riots of 1866," Journal of Negro History.

  [>] Formally, Lincoln refused: Tunnell, Crucible, pp. 40–41, 60–65.

  [>] Mayor Monroe informed the local federal commander: James Monroe to Absalom Baird, July 25, 1866, and Baird to Monroe, July 26, 1866; both cited in full in New York Times, Aug. 7, 1866; also see "New Orleans Riots 1866," House Executive Documents, 39th Cong., 2nd sess., no. 68, serial 1292.

  President Johnson, who notified Louisiana's attorney general: Andrew Johnson to Francis J. Herron, July 30, 1866, quoted in Hollandsworth, p. 143.

  [>] Baird was "unwilling to assume the attitude": "New Orleans Riots 1866."

  The opening day of the convention: For a description of events, see "Report of the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots," Washington GPO, 1867.

  [>] "The crowd in and out of the Mechanics Hall": New Orleans Daily Picayune, July 31, 1866.

  "We have fought for four years these god-damned Yankees": Quoted in Hollandsworth, p.115.

  "They ... tried to escape through an alley": New York Times, Aug. 1, 1866.

  [>] More than two hours passed: "Report of the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots."

  Although one official inquiry praised his troops' belated presence: "New Orleans Riots 1866."

  "Men were shot while waving handkerchiefs": "Report of the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots."

  "It was no riot; it was an absolute massacre": Philip Sheridan to Ulysses'S. Grant, Aug. 2, 1866; see Hollandsworth, frontispiece.

  "There has been no occasion during our national history": "New Orleans Riots," House Report No. 16, 39th Cong., 2nd sess., serial 1304.

  [>] "If this matter is permitted to pass over": Philip Sheridan to Andrew Johnson, Aug. 6, 1866; quoted in Hollandsworth, p. 145.

  A government investigation determined: "New Orleans Riots 1866."

  [>] "Although [he] died five years ago": North American Review, Oct. 1866.

  The absurdity of Johnson's homage: New York Times, Sept. 2, 1866.

  After he asked the crowd to tell him: New York Times, Sept. 5, 1866.

  [>] "President Johnson, in his speech at Cleveland": New York Times, Sept. 7, 1866.

  "I have been slandered": New York Tribune, Sept. 10, 1866.

  "We had thought the President had exhausted his power": New York Tribune, Sept. 10, 1866.

  [>] "Never in history had a President": Bowers, p. 138.

  "It was a great blunder": North American Review, Oct. 1866; also see coverage of Johnson's tour in New York Tribune and New York World, Aug. 28-Sept. 4, 1866; Bowers, pp. 135–39; Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction, pp. 118–19.

  "The unrepentant and still rebellious South": Vandal, "The Origins of the New Orleans Riot of 1866, Revisited," in Black Freedom/White Violence, 1865–1900, Donald G. Nieman, ed.

  [>] Begun in New York and Philadelphia during the war: Holt, pp. 29–31.

  [>] "Can you change a carrot into a melon?": W. G. Bronlow to "Payne," Oct. 26, 1860, reprinted in Charleston Daily Courier, Oct. 1, 1868.

  [>] "On account of the usurped and polluted source": Anderson Intelligencer, Apr. 22, 1868, quoted in Bleser, p. 26; see also New York Times, Jan. 23, 1868.

  [>] "Representing a constituency that previously had been ignored": Underwood and Baker, p. 26.

  3. Daddy Cain

  [>] It was one of three former Confederate states: Blacks constituted 60 percent of the population of South Carolina in 1870, and over 50 percent in Mississippi and Louisiana. In Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia, blacks made up 40–50 percent of the population; just over 33 percent in North Carolina; and between 25 percent and 33 percent in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas. See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Negro Population, 1790–1915, p. 51, cited in Foner, Freedom's Lawmakers, p. xiii.

  Contemporary accounts suggest: For Cain's background, see Mann, "Richard Harvey Cain," Negro History
Bulletin.

  [>] "A position of betwixity": Charleston Mercury, Jan. 28, 1868.

  The possession of lands and homesteads: Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, pp. 379, 382.

  [>] The poignancy of the location was not lost: Beaufort Gazette, Sept. 8, 1998.

  At a rally in Citadel Square: Charleston Daily News, Apr. 2, 1867.

  A local white newspaper urged blacks to remember: Charleston Advocate, Apr. 6, 1867.

  Officers of the Freedmen's Bureau intervened: Charleston Daily News, May 6, 1867.

  "Might have lived and died without having his name in print": Charleston Mercury, Jan. 28, 1868.

  [>] "A genuine negro, kinky-headed": Charleston Mercury, Feb. 20, 1868.

  He "has been gradually subsiding to his proper level": Ibid.

  "The features of a very ugly white man": Charleston Mercury, Jan. 28, 1868. One of the "peripatetic buccaneers from Cape Cod": Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, Introduction.

  So annoyed were some of the delegates: Ibid., pp. 27–31.

  [>] Most whites viewed him as gutless and self-glorifying: Bowers, p. 350.

  The emotions stirred by the demeaning press portraits: Charleston Mercury, Jan. 29, 1868.

  [>] As the delegates coolly defused the crisis: New York Times, Jan. 20, 1868.

  "I thundered": New York Globe, Aug. 16, 1884; see also Lamson, Peggy, p. 23.

  "The colored men in the Convention possess by long odds": New York Times, Jan. 21, 1868.

  [>] When a visiting correspondent of The Nation magazine: The Nation, Mar. 30, 1871.

  [>] Smalls suggested "a system of common schools": Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, p. 100.

  "Ignorance is the parent of vice and crime": Ibid., pp. 691–92.

  Other delegates suggested that parents: Ibid., pp. 701–2; see also Knight, p. 67.

  [>] "We only compel parents to send their children to some school": Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, p. 703; see also Knight, p. 66.

  Education did ultimately prove: Botsch, p. 73.