Capitol Men

by Philip Dray

  [>] Ultimately the star cars were eliminated: Fischer, "A Pioneer Protest," Journal of Negro History.

  "The time when every thinking man must come forward": Draft of Pinchback speech, Montgomery, Alabama, 1865–1866, P.B.S. Pinchback Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Collection, Howard University Library.

  "There is a sense of security displayed by our people": Draft of Pinchback speech to Louisiana Republican state convention, June 19, 1867, P.B.S. Pinchback Papers.

  Pinchback took the lead in authoring: Constitution of the State of Louisiana with Amendments, New Orleans, 1875; see Article 13.

  [>] "The first colored man in America": Perkins, "Oscar James Dunn," Phylon.

  A humiliating incident: New Orleans Crescent, Sept. 2, 1868; see also Haskins, p. 63.

  "A shooting affray ... with intent to kill and murder": New Orleans Daily Picayune, Sept. 2, 1868.

  [>] "The most fiery speech ever heard": New Orleans Daily Picayune, Sept. 4 and 8, 1868; see also Haskins, p. 64.

  Dunn, a fine-looking man: Perkins, "Oscar James Dunn."

  "I consider myself just as far above": Quoted in Haskins, p. 66.

  [>] Brutal atrocities occurred: Tunnell, Crucible of Reconstruction, pp. 154–57.

  "We are told, do not legislate on this subject": Draft of Pinchback ppeech, Jan. 4, 1869, P.B.S. Pinchback Papers.

  [>] "Senator Pinchback ... possesses tact and boldness": New Orleans Republican, Nov. 27, 1870.

  [>] Griffe, meaning a person: Reuter, p. 115. The gens de couleur figured prominently in state history, having fought heroically at the Battle of New Orleans on the nearby Plain of Chalmette in the War of 1812 and been famously commended for their gallantry by none other than General Andrew Jackson. Reportedly it was a slave who suggested to the American commanders the idea of using cotton bales as breastworks against the British, a strategy credited with playing a key role in the American victory. Jordan B. Noble, a black drummer boy in the battle, was an elderly man in Reconstruction New Orleans, telling the story of the great confrontation between American and British forces to anyone who cared to listen and sometimes delighting children by playing on his old drum. Many gens de couleur families were socially prominent, assimilated, and well-to-do; President Lincoln had counted on them to enable Reconstruction to take root in Louisiana.

  [>] "Sir, my conscience is not for sale": Kletzing, p. 185; see also Christian, "The Theory of the Poisoning of Oscar J. Dunn," Phylon.

  "Warmoth," Dunn complained: Warmoth, p. 145.

  The Democrats had a field day: Ibid., p. 112.

  [>] Elevating Dunn to vice presidential candidate: Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 23, 1871, quoted in Perkins, "Oscar James Dunn."

  [>] "I have been called a carpetbagger, a czar, a Caesar": Warmoth, p. 191.

  "Hasn't a handful ofbrains": New Orleans Republican, Sept. 2, 1871.

  [>] "A regular gurgling sob": Louisianian, Nov. 23, 1871.

  "Never seen pneumonia like that": Christian, "The Theory of the Poisoning of Oscar J. Dunn."

  "They've given poison to the Governor": New Orleans Times, Nov. 22, 1871.

  [>] "Beware of Herrings": See "Beware of Herrings" in New Orleans Times, Nov. 24, 1871. Prominent in New Orleans voodoo lore was the dreaded "gris-gris," a satchel filled with spices, fingernail parings, or pieces of reptile that, left on the doorstep, brought harm and illness to a house's occupant. Dunn himself was said to have once attended a voodoo exorcism at which priestess Malvina Latour "rescued" a man from a curse by conjuring from his throat a small black mouse. See also Asbury, pp. 202–3.

  "Set tongues upon swivels": Christian, "The Theory of the Poisoning of Oscar J. Dunn."

  "In a way that he had never before experienced": New Orleans Times, Nov. 23–25, 1871; New Orleans Republican, Nov. 23, 1871.

  '"Who delivered the fatal cup?'": Perkins, "James Henri Burch and Oscar James Dunn in Louisiana," Journal of Negro History.

  Dismissed the rumors as a "hallucination": Louisianian, Nov. 23, 1871.

  [>] "Manifested to us the truthfulness": New Orleans Republican, Dec. 7, 1871.

  [>] "Pinchback ... was a restless, ambitious man": Warmoth, p. 20.

  [>] In the war, Grant had distinguished himself: See discussion in Gillette, p. 179.

  [>] "A political jockey": "Naboth's Vineyard," speech by Charles Sumner in Congress, Dec. 21, 1870, in Sumner, Works, vol. 14, p. 94; see also New York Times, Dec. 21, 1870.

  "Had the President been so inspired": Sumner's Senate address of Mar. 24–25, 1871, quoted in New York Times, Mar. 28, 1871, and Charleston Daily News, Mar. 28, 1871.

  [>] "A cat without smellers": Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, p. 117.

  But even his supporters feared he had overreached: Sumner was not alone in his opposition to the Santo Domingo plan, which split Republican allies; for instance, Frederick Douglass and Congressman Joseph Rainey supported annexation, but William Lloyd Garrison did not. Douglass paid for his loyalty to Grant by being made to endure a tawdry racial snub. Invited to join a presidential fact-finding commission that traveled to Santo Domingo, he was excluded from both the dinner table aboard the ship as it returned to Washington and a dinner that Grant hosted at the White House for the commissioners, who, as expected, presented him with a favorable opinion of the annexation scheme. Grant, it appeared, had appointed Douglass to the commission as a way of countering Sumner's influence with the old black-abolitionist alliance, but after the commission's and the president's discourtesy toward the revered Douglass, there was little likelihood anyone from the anti-annexation camp would be swayed by Douglass.

  "Mr. President ...I am an administration man": Bowers, p. 297; see also Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, pp. 434–37.

  Some said the president's troubles really began: Bowers, p. 263.

  [>] The Grant administration's complicity: Finally, but too late to save several Wall Street brokerage houses, the president authorized the treasury to release $1 million in gold in an attempt to right the market. His personal collusion in the scheme was never proved, although Assistant Treasurer Daniel Butterfield, accused of aiding the conspiracy, was forced to resign.

  Garfield was said to have received $329: Garfield's reputation may have withstood assault in part because of an enduring tale of his wartime heroism. At the Battle of Chickamauga in June 1863, Garfield, possibly by coincidence, was seen riding toward the advancing Confederates while most of his Union comrades, including his superior officer, General William Rosecrans, were heading in the opposite direction. "Garfield's Ride," as the incident became known, proved a serviceable rejoinder to those who doubted his integrity. See Morris, Ambrose Bierce, pp. 59–60.

  "I may be wrong": Frederick Douglass to Charles Sumner, Jan. 6, 1871, Charles Sumner Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  [>] "First in nepotism": "Republicanism vs. Grantism," speech by Charles Sumner in the Senate on May 31, 1872, in Sumner, Works, vol. 15, pp. 85–171; also in Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, pp. 547–48.

  Their pet cause was the overturning: See Foner, Forever Free p. 179, for discussion of the Liberal Republican cause.

  As Sydney Howard Gay, a black New Yorker, reminded Sumner: Sydney Howard Gay to Charles Sumner, Aug. 8, 1872, Charles Sumner Papers.

  [>] "Revolutions never go backward": Elliott, "Oration Delivered by the Hon. R. B. Elliot, Apr. 16, 1872, at the Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia."

  "Big round face of infantile mildness": Bowers, p. 380.

  Sumner's endorsement only further rankled: So irritated were the Republicans with Sumner that he found himself in disrepute even when, in fall 1872, he proposed that the names of Union victories in the Civil War not be noted in army records or used in ceremonial connections, as these had been battles not with alien foes but other Americans. Sumner had raised this idea twice before, once during the Civil War and once in 1865, and his political allies had warmly received i
t. Now, however, the notion was attacked; the Massachusetts legislature went so far as to formally censure him, terming his resolution "an insult to the loyal soldiery of the nation ... depreciating their grand achievements in the late rebellion." An editorial accused him of "seeking the overturn of soldiers' gravestones" (quoted in Pierce, pp. 551–52). Sumner was surprised by the severe reaction, but the legislature's rash action ultimately served his purpose. The issue was thrust even more emphatically before the public, which, upon reflection, agreed with him. Phillips to J. B. Smith, Massachusetts House, Mar. 10, 1873, Manuscript Dept., Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; see also Congressional Globe, 42nd Cong., 3rd sess., p. 2, and Pierce, p. 550.

  "I need not tell you, my friends": New York Herald, Aug. 17, 1872.

  [>] The doubts about Greeley soon were reflected: See discussion in Gillette, pp. 66–69.

  "The pencil of Thomas Nast": Bowers, p. 231.

  [>] "If the success of the Republican party is at stake": Simmons, pp. 777–79; Haskins, pp. 151–52.

  [>] "Are you Governor Pinchback?": Louisianian, Sept. 21, 1872; see also Haskins, pp. 153–55, and Simmons, pp. 775–81.

  [>] Racing ... had long been a special passion: New Orleans Republican, Sept. 20, 1872. Horseracing, and racing and gambling in general, constituted a huge passion in Louisiana. Detailed newspaper columns headlined "TURF ACTION" were prominent on front pages even during moments of intense local political upheaval. In 1870, the region thrilled to a series of celebrated races between two legendary steamboats, the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee. The contests had political overtones, as the captain of the Natchez, Tom Leathers, was an unreconstructed rebel who wore Confederate gray and occasionally flew the stars and bars on his vessel; the Robert E. Lee was captained by John W. Cannon, who idolized the boat's namesake and, like Lee, was a political moderate. The races upriver, from New Orleans to St. Louis, were watched by thousands of fans and bettors who lined the shores at Memphis, Cairo, and elsewhere. The Lee ultimately emerged the winner, achieving a time of three days, eighteen hours, and fourteen minutes, a record that stood for decades. Governor Warmoth rode aboard the Robert E. Lee during one of the heats. See Way, pp. 71–89.

  The Louisianian worried that locking Pinchback: Louisianian, Sept. 21, 1872.

  "What have the people of Louisiana done": New Orleans Daily Picayune, Sept. 20, 1872.

  [>] "Had visited him the night before": Lonn, p. 207; Haskins, p. 159.

  Warmoth denied the accusation: Grosz, "The Political Career of P.B.S. Pinchback," Louisiana Historical Quarterly; Haskins, p. 159.

  [>] Pinchback hoped the general's credentials: See Piston.

  Pinchback unleashed a severe denunciation: Louisianian, Jan. 5, 1873.

  [>]. The Colfax Massacre

  [>] Exhausted, haunted by the recent death: Riddleberger, "The Break in the Radical Ranks," Journal of Negro History.

  [>] "Without going into details": New York Tribune, Mar. 5, 1872.

  "Here, then, is the outcome": Pike, pp. 11–12.

  "Seven years ago these men": Ibid., pp. 21, 29–30.

  "Years ago, when abolition": New York Tribune, Apr. 19, 1873.

  Pike's book, widely lauded: Durden, "The Prostrate State Revisited," Journal of Negro History.

  [>] "Slightly above the level of animals": The Nation, Apr. 16 and 30, 1874.

  "The ignorant negro rulers": Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1874.

  "The ignorant and unprincipled classes": Charleston News & Courier, Jan. 6, 1874.

  "The 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' of the Southern Redemption": Bowers, p. 418.

  [>] "Chuckles, guffaws": Ibid., p. 353.

  "Monkey house": Ibid., p. 364.

  Did black politicians really behave this way: Ibid., p. 424; see also New York Herald, Oct. 17, 1874.

  "Serving-maids"—sitting and taking tea: Avary, pp. 353–57.

  [>] "To win at the ballot box what was lost with the cannon": Independent, Mar. 12 and Aug. 6 and 13, 1874; see also McPherson, The Abolitionist Legacy, p. 42.

  "We have only half swallowed this pill": Haven, Independent, Aug. 13, 1874.

  "The charge of corruption and extravagance": Uya, pp. 105–8; see also Smalls, "An Honest Ballot Is the Safeguard of the Republic—Speech of Hon. Robert Smalls in the House of Representatives, Feb. 24, 1877," Congressional Record, 44th Cong., 2nd sess., appendix, pp. 123–36.

  "Where there is so much smoke": Rufus Saxton to Robert Smalls, Dec. 25, 1871, published in Beaufort Republican, Jan. 4, 1872.

  [>] "As well as I knew the beacon lights": Robert Smalls to Rufus Saxton, Jan. 1, 1872, published in Beaufort Republican, Jan. 4, 1872.

  [>] In 1877, after the Democrats seized control: Charleston News & Courier, Nov. 12, 1877; Uya, pp. 82–83.

  '"Smalls, you had better resign'": Ibid., pp. 85–86.

  [>] '"They intended to go into the country'": "History of the Riot at Colfax, Grant Parish, Louisiana, April 13, 1873," prepared by the "Committee of 70," New Orleans, Apr. 13, 1874.

  In order to create a "new race" of people: Rable, p. 127.

  "The little sleek black negro": "History of the Riot at Colfax."

  [>] "To get up a body of men for the unwarrantable attack": New York Times, Apr. 16, 1873.

  "Not afraid to die for white supremacy": Johnson, "The Colfax Riot of April 1873," Louisiana Historical Quarterly; see also New Orleans Republican, Apr. 25, 1873.

  [>] "This man is an old Confederate soldier": Johnson, "The Colfax Riot of April 1873."

  Powell's party carried the small steamboat cannon: Ibid.; see also New Orleans Republican, Apr. 18, 1873.

  [>] "It is our opinion": New Orleans Republican, Apr. 25, 1873.

  [>] R. G. Hill, one such passenger: New Orleans Republican, Apr. 16, 1873; see also Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 17, 1873.

  In New Orleans, Kellogg and Emory were staggered: Dawson, pp. 145–46.

  [>] Pinchback traveled upriver: Haskins, pp. 184–86.

  Pinchback, upon reaching the podium: "Horrible Massacre in Grant Parish, Louisiana: Meeting of Colored Men in New Orleans, Address and Speeches," pamphlet printed at the Republican Office, New Orleans, 1873.

  "A large number of white people feel just as sad as we do": Ibid.

  [>] "This racist and morally opaque decision": Tunnell, Crucible of Reconstruction, p.193.

  "It was private action, not state action": Gressman, "The Unhappy History of Civil Rights Legislation," Michigan Law Review.

  [>] "A Second Fort Pillow": New York Times, Apr. 16, 17, and 19, 1873.

  8. Capstone of the Reconstructed Republic

  [>] "We cannot ... educate our children": Congressional Record, 43rd Cong., 1st sess., Jan. 5, 1874.

  [>] "Earlier in time, loftier, more majestic": Pierce, vol. 4, p. 501.

  "Pledge of universal human equality": Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, p. 153.

  A pragmatic, "earthly body": Congressional Record, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess., p. 825.

  "The subject of subjects": Sumner, quoted by William Lloyd Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison to Sumner, Aug. 3, 1872, Charles Sumner Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  [>] "One which the Almighty has seen fit to establish": "Extracts from the Majority Report of the Caste School," in the Liberator, Aug. 21, 1846; quoted in Levy and Phillips, "The Roberts Case," American Historical Review.

  "Condemned by Christianity": Pierce, vol. 3, pp. 40–41; quoted in Murphy, "The Civil Rights Law of 1875," Journal of Negro History.

  "The whites themselves are injured": "Argument of Charles Sumner ... in the case of Sarah Roberts v. the City of Boston, Boston, 1849," quoted in Levy and Phillips, "The Roberts Case."

  "Cannot fail to have a depressing effect": New National Era, May 5, 1870. Sumner's brief, however, was rejected: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, pp. 180–81.

  [>] "How is it possible for one who has never been denied": Sarah H. Thompson to Charles Sumner, Feb. 5, 1872, printed in
New National Era, Feb. 15, 1872.

  "I think only those who have suffered deeply": Charlotte Forten to Charles Sumner, Jan. 28, 1872, Charles Sumner Papers.

  "For God's sake urge your Civil Rights Bill": George W. Richardson to Charles Sumner, Jan. 27, 1872, Charles Sumner Papers.

  The peripatetic Gilbert Haven was aghast: Independent, Aug. 13, 1874.

  [>] One of the most disturbing testimonials: G. W. Mitchell to Charles Sumner, Jan. 27, 1872, with attached statement by J. William White, Charles Sumner Papers.

  "In late 1872 the civil rights cause received a boost": Coleman, "The Fight of a Man with a Railroad," Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1872; for comment, see New National Era, Nov. 28, 1872.

  [>] "Here am I, a member ofyour honorable body": "Civil Rights Speech of Hon. John R Lynch, of Mississippi, in the House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 1875," GPO, Washington, 1875.

  Joseph Rainey told a story: New National Era, Dec. 7, 1871; Lamson, Peggy, pp. 120–21.

  [>] "The roasting of a poor negro lad with kerosene": Louisianian, Mar. 21, 1872.

  [>] "He cannot appropriate the sidewalk": Congressional Globe, 42nd Cong., 1st sess., p. 382.

  "Why this fear of the negro": Joseph Rainey, speaking in the House of Representatives, Feb. 3, 1872, quoted in Louisianian, Feb. 29, 1872.

  "A practical demonstration": New National Era, May 29, 1872.

  [>] In practice, the Fugitive Slave Act: Korngold, Two Friends, p. 210.

  The law created a precedent for the idea: Kaczorowski, "To Begin the Nation Anew," American Historical Review.

  "I have sworn to support the Constitution": Congressional Globe, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess., p. 3263 (italics added by author).

  [>] "I am not here to be dictated to": Ibid., pp. 3262–63.

  "If the Democrats are such staunch friends": New National Era, Mar. 14, 1872.

  [>] "He [Morrill] finds no power for anything": Congressional Globe, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 728–30.